Chapter Twenty-eight

Why Do You Want To Be Friends Anyway?

Her new shell and her beloved guard dog were getting closer. She could sense them so well now that they were nearing the middle of Shyde.

Doctors swarmed around her tinkering with her metal prison, their faces looking distorted though the lines of rising bubbles. Still vivid emerald eyes closed.

Just a little longer...


"Ya do realize ya was harassin' Ol' Gisshan back there."

Ryu stood with his hands in his pockets, glancing back into camp. "Who? You need to hurry up and do your 'business', it's looking strange you always tagging alongside me more than with your girlfriend."

"She ain't my girlfriend!" Lesley hissed, spitting out sand from his hiding spot. "An' I'm almost done 'aight? Lemme speak what I gotta speak!"

"Then speak!"

"He ain't a threat, ok? He's nothin' but a merchant. Been 'round longer than I can remember. Day I joined the AG they told me if I ever lost somethin' I ever cared 'bout out here to always go lookin' for him. His little minions always been combin' these wastelands."

Ryu's scowl didn't fade. "He knew I was there in stealth."

Lesley grinned. "There's reason to believe that guy ain't a human that's for damn sure. He's old, but he ain't aged a day more than the last time I saw him almost ten years ago an' even then he don't move like an elder. Ain't fast but he ain't slow neitha."

He was right. "He still smelled human."

"An' me a dog."

Ryu growled like one. "I don't like it."

"Deal with it, it ain't yo gig no more. I dunno what clock you been lookin' at but five hunnard years is some time, bro, otha people besides dragons are intelligent. Ya didn't think we'd adapt?"

Ryu wanted to say that wasn't what he meant, but it really was wasn't it?

All of his life he had been one step below the top of the food chain. Armies of men would succumb to the mere presence of the Destroyer. Those who didn't, did eventually whether above the ground or under.

"'ey I ain't done speakin'!" Ryu's eyes went to him. "Ya need ta make Nina talk ta Kittah."

He sighed. "Not this game again."

"It ain't a game! She needs a friend!"

Ryu shook his head. "I can't make Nina do anything she doesn't want to do."

"Why can't she trust Kittah, huh? Why she gotta say somethin' like that to her?"

"Disassociation. You heard her story. A lot of people she's trusted have turned on her."

"Kittah ain't like that at all an' you kno' it."

"Again, I can't tell her what to do." He found himself smirking slightly at the fact that he didn't scare her anymore in the least bit. "It's something she's going to have to get over herself."

"Jus' tell her to be nice, that's all I ask," pleaded the shaman.

The dragon jerked his head back toward camp. "We'll see. Come, it's getting dark." Lesley changed into Wolfie and bounded around him a few times in an attempt to get the sand off before trotting in behind him.

Arson greeted them with a little fireball that lit the bottom of Ryu's jacket on fire. He put it out in scale covered hands. "Arson, what are you burning? I thought we said no fire other than campfire." asked Ryu after taking a deep, composing breath.

Tiny dots of light stared up at him. "Master you no scold me. I do what blonde girl say."

They were to start traveling at dawn tomorrow so everyone had gone to bed early. Nina had insisted on this. The faster she got to a place with air conditioning, a hot shower, and a soft bed, the better she'd feel about everything, she said. He knew she'd realized she'd go crazy sitting here doing nothing.

"And that was to burn...?"

Arson put her staff on her back and sat down in front of the fire. "She no like morning paper. I ask if she want any more. She say no and to go make this one shiny so I did. I make pretty, right? You like?" she asked, looking back at him.

Ryu knelt down. Gray's tent was the only one lit, he could clearly see both he and Shyloh's shadows quietly arguing. They did that a lot. Sometimes Shyloh didn't go back to her tent. "Arson, I need to you to continue to get the paper for us."

"But blonde girl say-"

Ryu took out a small piece of glass he'd found in the sands. He held it up to the fire and tilted it back and forth. "Look what I haave."

Arson looked up. "That not half as shiny as stuff other master give."

He frowned. "I am your only master."

Arson pulled a tiny makeup compact out from underneath her hat and opened it up to show him the mirror it had inside. "You not know what shiny is so she better."

Ryu made a face and tossed the glass behind him. "Tell me if you see anyone," he grumbled, standing. "I need to talk to blonde girl."

"I maybe come tell, I maybe not."

The dragon sighed, making his way to Nina's tent. "Nina, can you please stop manipulating the nut..."

He didn't have to open her tent to know what was going on inside. She was crying pretty hard, his sinuses were already starting to react. He turned and walked to Gray's tent, pulling open the front without warning. Gray and Shyloh stared at him in mid liplock. The dragon turned his head sharply. At least they were clothed. "I need one of you to guard. Kittah was last night. Something's come up." Red faced, Shyloh pushed her way past Ryu and quickly went into her tent.

Gray sighed with a shrug, "I guess it be me." Ryu didn't stay to hear any more response.


Nina couldn't stop crying.

The warrior Ryu wanted her to be was crumbling.

Seeing the paper again in Arson's little hand, her uncle's advertisement to the world that he was going to chop a little girl's head off because that's what Wyndia needed to become a better place...

She remembered how frightened she was on her way to the block. How horrid all the hate filled voices shouting at her were. There would be no Vahn or Nichol to shield her. Would anyone care? Isabella was trash, she was always disposable trash.

She realized Ryu was holding her. Emotion took all of her words.

Her knees were against his chest. He pressed his forehead against hers, sliding his fingers into the back of her hair, not caring now how sweaty it still was. "I said I'd be here."

He stayed until dawn peeked over the horizon, until she pushed away from him and stood outside her tent towards it with her eyes almost swollen shut and her hands clasped together below her chin in a prayer hymn she belted out so eloquently, even Shyloh was in tears when she was finished.

The shaman, looking sheepish, walked over and touched two glowing fingers to Nina's eyes. The swelling instantly diminished. "That was..."

"I know, I can't take credit for it," said Nina. She blinked. "Thank you for that." The rest of her party all stared back at her with a mixture of awe and sorrow. All she could see was Ryu. "Shall we be off?"


Hands gently caressed the dragon's smooth, serene face. Slender digits traced up his jawline, intertwined with his hair.

The heavens sang sweetly to him.

O the warrior, strong is he

Watching over this land, heeding everyone's plea.

The hands went into his bangs, massaged into his scalp. If he were a cat, he would've purred.

Tasks big or small, he takes them all

One mighty swing of his sword and O how foes do fall.

Ryu's eyes slowly opened, focused on the beautiful angel cradling him in her lap.

Would you think he was happy, this warrior so strong?

The one who makes evil cower? Well, you would be wrong.

Little do they know all he wants is to be free.

No one knows, but me.

Long blonde hair tickled his cheeks, those delicate white fingers drew him closer to the lips so softly serenading him.

With the Black Witch's web tied to his limbs

He can do nothing more than abide to her whims

The wants of nobles unworthy

The needs of women too worldly

Little does anyone know what lies behind his charismatic facade

Rage beyond the wrath of any god.

No one knows, but me.

I know the pain inside, the despair he cannot show

The blood that will not wipe from his hands, his untold stories of woe

I know of the skies he craves

The uninhibited heights he must wish he could brave

Feeling a warmness in himself he couldn't begin to decipher, he reached up and caressed the angel's cheek.

My tragic hero, no matter what you believe

Know I'd risk my life to set you free.


"Ryu, wake up, there's a little town, we're stopped and stocking up," Nina shook Ryu. "We need to you guard for a little bit, wake up!"

His fingers brushed against her cheek. "...I'm no hero...," he murmured, still dead to the world.

Nina couldn't tell if she was blushing anymore, her face was always burning. She shrugged his hand off and shook him harder. Finally she resorted to biting her own lip hard enough to bleed. That did the trick.

"H-hey, what for? I'm up, I'm up!" the dragon growled, groggily standing up and rubbing the blood onto the back of his hand. He ducked out from under the canopy into the sun, stretching his arms over his head. "Don't have to be so rough, a good shake is enough."

She listened to him pop almost every joint in his body. "I tried shaking you! I thought you slept with one eye open!"

"I had a sleepless night twice over, remember? Give me a break."

That was right. He was awake all night with her.

Hours of him staring more intensely than he ever had into her while speaking so soothingly, willing with his whole being for the Kaiser not to show. She fingered one of her belt loops. Of him holding the back of her hair in a way she at the time thought was affection, but later came to realize was only a preemptive grip to stop her from tearing out his throat if he did.

"These winds are pretty strong today, huh? Ow!" He rubbed his arm from where sand was flying into him.

Did he do anything because he wanted to? Or only because he needed to, to survive?

His soul didn't answer.

Sometimes he was just like his body. A standoffish feral cat, only wishing for attention on his terms. "Just watch the cruiser for a minute, okay?" she asked, climbing out of it. "I'll see if they have that cactus water you always rave about." He made a disgusted face and stuck his tongue out.

They'd run into a few small towns on their way towards the oasis. Most didn't have anything to offer but scorpion steak and cactus water, but you took what nourishment you could traveling out in this place; nothing ever kept well.

Nina followed Gray, Kittah and Shyloh into a poor looking market in an even poorer looking town. Everyone but the merchants were in their houses peeking through patched up curtains at them. "Stranga's is baaaa~d most times," a leathery faced old drunk lying in a corner slurred at Nina when he noticed her looking. A dusty bottle of brown liquid attached to his lips went bottom up. "Don't ya'll be bad stranga's now!" his wheezy laugh clung to them.

"Let's get some water and get the hell out," muttered Shyloh, inching closer to Gray.

"Ahh they's mo' scared o' us than us o' them," said Gray, pushing open the door of a supply shop.

A sad looking elderly man stood at the end of a rickety counter. Behind her were mostly empty shelves covered in cobwebs. Nina felt almost like a gang coming in there with so many people. The man's eyes tripled in size when Gray walked up to him. "We need as much water as ya think it'll take ta git us ta Oasis Springs," he said, "It be all o' us, plus one an' a dog." It took money on the table for the man to respond.

"Yes sir, right away sir." He shuffled off, calling to someone named Maddie.

A woman just as elderly, his wife Nina presumed, peeked around the corner holding a broom. She eyed the money on the counter then disappeared. More yelling resumed. Then a man bigger than Gray with a bald head and dark skin stepped out with a Nina-sized barrel and slammed it on the sandy ground. All eyes went to it. "He say your money gets you this."

"Ahh that's too much-"

"Take it and go. We don't want no trouble."

"I was jus tryin' ta be nice an' tip tha old guy!" Gray cried, scratching his head looking over the cruiser to try and find a place for their new cargo. "They act like no one's capable o' nothin' good no more."

Ryu managed to wedge it into the corner he was snoring in a moment ago. "Do you blame them? Look at this place."

"Not plannin' ta fo' much longa! 'Aight boys n' gals it's time ta git a move on! Two mo' days if'n we go without stoppin', ya up fo' it?"

They all nodded in unison. It would be worth it. It was a goddessdamned resort.

Gray laughed and started up the cruiser. "Glad we's on tha same page!"

Heads cautiously popped out of broken windows and flimsy doors to watch them leave as the drunk in the corner's laugh echoed throughout the empty streets.


"Efaaaaa~aan! I missed you soooo much!" Isabella cried, wearing a dark little cloak, bounding across the rickety hotel floor and dive bombing her guardian sitting on an unmade, stained bed. He made sure no part of her touched it. "Efan where we going? Pretty pink lady say you'd tell me if I didn't say 'Isabella' once at the hair salon! You like my new hair! It's pink like her!" Her now bright, light pink hair was cut almost like a boy's.

"It's very nice," he said, messing it up in the front playfully. Phoebe leaned against the wall by the door with her hands resting on her weapons smiling at the little girl. Muffled voices and music pounded on the ceiling and walls. Isabella looked around suddenly at a crash and a woman's scream somewhere upstairs. "Hey, hey, look at me," said Ethan, putting his hands on her face and turning her to him. "We're going to play a game okay? I need to you be the most quiiietest girl you've ever been in your entire life okay?" he murmured softly to her. "And you have to do everything I say without any questions."

"Why-?"

He covered her mouth and smiled. "Because if you are a good girl and do what I say then I'll take you to see Sissy!" Isabella's eyes lit up. "You want to see Sissy don't you?" She nodded profusely. "Okay, I'm going to let go and you're going to be super quiet, okay?" The nodding continued. He let go of her and opened up a drawer near them, pulling out a little radio, a coloring book, and crayons. He handed them all to her along with his ear buds. "I want you to go over there to that desk and color Sissy some pictures. Put these in your ears and listen to the radio and make sure you color really nice, alright Izzie?" The little Wyndian grabbed everything and hurried over to the desk.

Ethan looked to Phoebe when the child was distracted by the radio. "How much did you tell her?"

"That her father was going away for awhile and that you were going to take care of her. As soon as she heard your name, it was easy to get her to comply."

"Does she know she's wanted?"

"Not sure. The castle staff was pretty neglectful of her. I've been the one feedin' an' entertainin' her. Poor thing wasn't allowed to leave her room an' she took it so well."

"She's hardly ever allowed outside of there; she's used to it."

Both of their communicators beeped simultaneously. A nervous Jaxx filled their screens when they answered. "That damn Lesley's turned on us, the dragon killed Adelaide, Dex is all outta whack, Lucas is racin' ova ta Oasis Springs right now 'n Irn-"

Jaxx's image flickered and was replaced by Dexter Kilgore. Ethan paled. The pretty face Dexter usually wore for the world smirked up at him with superiority. "Ironsides? Iiiiiii~-ronsiiiiiides? I'm broadcasting this to everybody but that little mutt so I know you can hear me." Violet eyes narrowed in between strands of unusually unkempt bangs a shade darker than them. Machinery hummed in the background. "Ironsides, I'm going to torture and kill your daughter, then I'm going to kill your son. Then I'm going to kill the dragon and then of course take care of the Angel. I'm going to godsdamn kill all of them for killing Addy so don't any of you bother." He pulled back, glared hard into the camera. Sands and stars flew by him. That humming was him on a cruiser. "Lucas, you bastard, I know you're going to get there before me so you better save those worens or you're dead too!" He shook his hair out of his face. "I mean it Ironsides, your kids are going to die and if you try to save them, you're going to die with them and Ironbro, believe me, I really, really want you to try." The screen went blank.

Ethan grabbed Isabella out of her chair without caring about her pictures and followed Phoebe out, both their wrists flashing and beeping with unanswered calls.


Now this was a hotel.

Thirty stories high with palm trees and tropical flowers everywhere, every room was its own floor and they had used the last of their money to get the top. Nina ditched her jacket on a patio table and stepped out onto the balcony. Every suite also had its own pool/ hot tub mixture with rock waterfalls on either side and one that ran off the railing into other guests' pools below. It was dusk, so the palm tree patterns on the floor of the pool were pulsing a bright green. She stared at it until the winds hit her.

As she gazed out into the purplish pink/ star filled desert sky with her arms out, all she could think of was-

"Miss ya wings?" Nina turned to see Kittah holding her onyx hair back from her face. She didn't answer, only stared with a stoic "Ryu-like" face. The gray woren's ears drooped, her eyes went to the marble flooring. "Nina, I dun kno' why ya think I'm afta ya or somethin'-"

"Chasta was my best friend for a very long time and look where that got me."

Kittah's brow furrowed, winds pulled loose locks out of her paw. "I get it. So everyone ya meet from now on's got no chance ta get close ta ya 'cause o' one gal's bad decisions."

Nina's eyes were cold. "Why do you want to be friends anyway? What good would that do you? I'm the Angel of Death."

Hers sparkled. "Cuz I think ya need one. An' I need one too if'n ya wanna get blunt 'bout it."

For the first time in a long time, Nina really looked at Kittah. This girl grew up in a village full of people who hated her, watching her mother waste away and die after her only brother left her there alone to do so. She could have run away afterwards, but she stayed even though she was ostracized because she had nothing, and because she knew nothing else could do nothing but wait for Gray to come back and save her. Sure, the dark dragons got rid of them all, but they almost got rid of her in the process.

Chasta was a liar, but she at least filled Nina's childhood with some nice fake memories.

Another chink in her warrior armor. Nina grabbed the woren's arm. "Come on, there's two showers in the bathroom. I talk better when I'm clean," she said, dragging her past Shyloh who was toweling off her hair. "You smell great, Shy!" she called over her shoulder at her.

"They's right ya kno'." Shyloh suddenly found Gray awfully close to her.

She nudged him away, glancing around. "I thought you said you were going to the bar?"

He leaned against the glass wall between the balcony and their suite with his arms crossed looking her over. "I be waitin' on me arm candy ta git finished gettin' dolled up. Who's gonna fend off all tha girlies wantin' ta talk ta tha champ?"

Her lips pursed in an effort to stop a smile. It didn't work. "Are we that popular?"

He laughed loudly, pounding his chest with a fist. "Who ya think ya talkin' ta?"

Shyloh wrapped her hair up in the towel. "Fifteen minutes," she said, walking through the entertainment quarters over towards her room. Gray's eye was glued to her, visualizing what he knew was underneath that-

Wolfie barked and it startled him. "What? If'n ya could talk, I bet ya'd say she was a damn nice lookin' thang too!" He muttered, wondering why he felt embarrassed about it. The dog whined and cocked his head.


Nina didn't know what making love felt like, but certainly a good, hot shower wasn't far from it.

Ryu's soul chuckled in agreement.

Nina sat back against a padded booth seat inside the shower with her eyes closed, letting the water soothe her aching body. Thank the goddess the hour it took for them to get all of their things into the room and check it out had given her sunburn a chance to heal so she could enjoy this.

In the shower beside her, a bottle popped open. Kittah's shadow through the cream colored curtain dividing their black tiled heavens pour something into its hands. "Wow this stuff smells good o' nuff ta eat, what the hell it be? Co-co-nut. What be that?" Kittah had informed her before coming in here that this would be her first shower ever. "Ha, like Yuistel be a paradise or somethin'. If'n ya wanted a hot bath, ya went ta tha stream an' ya took ya pot, filled it up, lugged the sucka all tha way back an then heated it up an' hoped ta tha Tigress ya dun spill any o' it in tha process," she had said.

Nina popped open her shampoo not expecting what was inside to pull so many dark memories out of her mind's closet. Strawberries. She scowled and unscrewed the top. "Hey Kittah, can I borrow some of that? Mine seems to be empty," she asked, watching the last of it go down the drain. A silver paw covered in soap came through to her side. She took the bottle it held and started to wash her hair. Wow it really did smell good enough to eat.

After they both had finished their hair, Kittah opened the curtain a bit. Nina leaned back on her seat. The woren's bright blues were so drastic compared to everything in here. "Are we gonna be 'aight?" she asked softly.

Nina was tired of having her heart ripped out. Chasta had played a charade for longer than any sane person would have and Ethan... She looked away only because she didn't want Kittah to think the look she had was for her. "It's like I have a wall," she said, watching bubbles swirl around the drain. "that I feel like I must put up or something really bad will happen."

"Adelaide broke tha last straw, huh?"

Adelaide. Goddess she looked like Isabella. Poor, headless little Isabella... Nina nodded numbly.

"Wolfie's been me only friend fo' a bit now. Shy be there, but she like fam'ly. It ain't tha same." Kittah reached over and took Nina's hand. Surprised, the Wyndian looked up. Kittah's hair flowed down her like black water. "What ken I do ta make ya kno' I ain't neva gonna do nothin' ta ya? Ya dun deserve anyone ta botha ya, ya've had too much stuff happenin' ta ya! Hell I been seein' a lot o' it wit me own eyes!"

The chink was getting bigger.

I do not wish for you to become the heartless beast I once had to be. Stop beating yourself up about it.

Nina squeezed the woren's hand. "After this, let's go check out the rest of the resort. Maybe we'll see some good looking guys around," she said with a wink.

The woren smiled widely, looking almost Gray-ish. "Cal should be down at tha bar gettin' us some mo' cash. Let's go rile things up a bit, eh?"


Ryu sat with his feet in tha hot tub watching the wind blow the leaves of the tropical plants set all around their balcony. Everyone was gone; he had just said goodbye to Nina, Kittah and Wolfie heading out. He laid back against cooled marble and stared up into the now star-filled sky.

Relax.

Every muscle was ready. "I can't help it."

Lesley said not to worry about that Gisshan fellow.

"I don't know what to worry about anymore, so I might as well worry about it all," he growled.

What are we going to do against Dexter?

Ryu made the hot tub water boil by releasing a fire spell through his heels. On one of his many "walks" with Lesley, the shaman had divulged everything he knew about Dexter Kilgore to the dragon. He was an old member of the AG like Gray's father and, like his sister, made himself look a lot younger than he was. "Expect the prettiest guy ya'd ever see, but don't expect no pretty attitude with that face, that guy's insane," he'd said.

More so than Ivory? Ryu had asked him. Than Zeth?

Lesley had laughed a long time before answering, "Gods, yo' in fo' a treat."

Dexter was one of the most powerful people in the AG because he could make you do whatever he wanted you to. If he wanted you to stab yourself in the foot, you did it without question. Stab your friend? You'd love to! Slice open your own eye? Ironsides did it, why not you? Kill your children in front of your wife and then her? Oh you couldn't do it fast enough!

"It's like he a god or somethin', and all ya wanna do is please him," Lesley shivered, "I don't kno' what we gonna do. I ain't never felt so 'stripped' o' everythin' that was me when I was 'round 'im. Not bein' in control of yourself be a bitch."

Story of Ryu's life.

"Sounds like we're going to have to play him by ear," said the dragon with uncertainty.

I don't like it.

"Neither do I."

I'll do my best to help you fight him.

He smiled, remembering her singing so softly to him. "I know you will."

Thunder sounded in the far distance.

Wait, what?

Ryu sat up and stared at lightning striking down from an enormous black cloud blotting out the stars on the horizon.


Scratch meeting any guys, Wolfie was a male repellent. Any man coming within feet of Kittah looking like he wanted to speak with her got an earful of Wolfie's feelings about it. They had to pull him out of the hotel to the front where there wasn't much traffic.

Kittah leaned down in her nice new summery coral sundress she had just bought and whacked the dog on the nose with her bag of desert clothes. He whined and pawed at her. "Why ya gotta be like that, huh? Ain't none o' these guys gonna do nothin' ta us! Stop bein' a lil' menace!" She looked up at Nina, wearing her own pastel blue version of her ensemble, except she had opted for heels. Kittah didn't understand heels.

The Wyndian only laughed. "He's one territorial pup!"

The dog jumped and nuzzled the woren's face. She sighed and hugged him in return. "Needy bastid," she said giving him a big kiss on the head.

Cheers could be heard coming from the bar. "I wonder if Gray's winning?"

"'course 'e be! Wish we could go look at 'im do it," she growled at the dog who only cocked his head back at her innocently.

"What? Really? You mean someone actually kidnapped the little monster girl from Wyndia?"

Nina's ears pricked. On the other side of a giant five tiered fountain, a man and a woman were sitting on a bench talking. The woman was reading the evil paper Nina had sworn off of. "Yeah, look right here. The new King Julian went to fetch her for the execution and found her missing and her balcony door open!"

"Don't she got wings? Lil' bugger probably flew away."

"No, they're saying they think the guardian did it since they can't find him either, isn't that wild?"

Nina's spirits started to pry themselves up from the ground they'd been embedded in. Was she hearing that correctly? Ethan kidnapped Isabella right before her execution? Why would he do that? That was against Wyndia... Everything he ever damn did was for Wyndia!

This time, was it for her?

Her heart pounded at the thought of seeing him again.

He tried to kill you, Ryu's soul bitterly reminded her.

"Yes, I clearly remember," she said, face darkening.

"'Memba what?" asked Kittah standing up.

Nina turned to her, grinning ear to ear. "I've got some really good news, but I need to tell it to Ryu too, so come on, let's go back to the room!"


The clouds were spreading closer. Lightning streaked through sheets of rain Ryu could see pelting the lands. Who did Gray say was the guy who could control the weather? Lucas?

"Ryu! Isabella's not dead! Ethan kidnapped her and I have no clue what he's trying to—what the hell, is that a-a thunderstorm?" Nina cried, running in with heels, a dress, and some unnecessary jewelry on.

Kittah tailed behind looking just as made up. "Tigress' whiskers I ain't neva seen a storm like that!"

Thunder shook the entire hotel, the water in their pools sloshed angrily. Lightning arched across the blackness in a beautiful display. Winds tore through the trees below them. Ink like clouds crept nearer.

Ryu readied his blades and motioned for Nina to follow suit. He could feel him dead ahead.

"There!" Nina cried pointing. "Wearing a robe!"

Sheets of water dumped down onto them. Lightning blasted marble. Kittah and Wolfie ducked back into the building. Ryu cut through rain with a fire infused bone blade, trying to evaporate the water on contact so he could see-

Suddenly he was lifted from the ground by an unseen force and thrown clear off the balcony.

"GO GET HIM, DUMMY!" screamed Merybel from Nina's ear. The Wyndian ripped out one of her earrings and dove off after him.

He was almost to the third floor before she caught him by the waist. A family of humans all stared at the black wings with their mouths open. She ignored them and shot back up. "Keep your wings out!" Ryu cried to her.

"Everyone's going to see!"

"It doesn't matter, our first priority is getting rid of this guy! Get me back onto the balcony!"

Lucas had spread his dark clouds over the top of the building in an attempt to hide himself. And to shoot lightning wherever he damn well wanted to. Nina darted back as one bolt struck the air near them. Ryu took hold of her arm and she swung him back on marble flooring. He immediately stealthed. His clouds wouldn't be in the shadow realm, maybe there he could see him-

There he was, pulling water up from the pool into the air and crystallizing it into a spear. He was looking back at Nina. "Nina, watch out!" The spear barely missed impaling her. Ryu appeared on the other side of Lucas, blades steaming. The boy's hood flew back as the dragon connected with the shield of air he had surrounding him.

Short white hair ruffled, navy eyes laughed at him as he whistled. "That's some force...too bad it'll never hit."

Ryu smirked and sliced again. And again, and again, and again. "Nina!" he called.

"On it!" she answered, flying over and doing the same thing with her blades.

They weren't getting through, but the force of them both was enough to knock him around in his shell. "Alright, you two are starting to piss me off!" Lucas cried, clenching both his fists and pulling them out to his sides. Invisible forces grabbed both Nina and Ryu and pulled them back. Lucas grinned and banged his fists together. Nina and Ryu came crashing into one another. Not giving them a chance to comprehend or recover from what just happened, Lucas banged again. So did the two of them with a sickening thud and a crack.

Blood filled Ryu's eyes and mouth. Nina coughed up her own crimson fountain. Bang. He felt his body jerk back. Dear Ladon it was going to happen again. That last one broke a few ribs and he didn't know if it was his injury or hers. They were coming back together. Ryu watched Nina squeeze her eyes closed, saw the color drain from her features and suddenly...

"STOOOOOOP!"

They stopped. Ryu could feel Nina's ragged breath on his neck, her rapid heartbeat pound from her chest to his. Below them stood Kittah in Weretiger form with her arms out. Lucas glared at her from within his bubble.

"Leave 'em be!" she roared through gigantic teeth.

Lucas smirked and raised them both higher. "I wonder if she can still fly after this," said his soft voice. The invisible 'fist' of air holding Nina squeezed until both her wings cracked.

Kittah watched, her heart going into her stomach, Lucas toss them both screaming off the building.


A/N: Chapter 29 might take me a little bit, so here's 28 early! And yes, I do enjoy writing this a lot. Ryu is a very fun character to play around with :)