LITMIR.BIZ

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ground rather than being caught on a ladder, so he was smart enough not to argue the point as Leyth quickly climbed the metal steps. Dax held his breath, waiting for any sign of the enemy. Utter silence. Unnatural silence.

      Leyth scanned the top of the boat with the muzzle of his gun. When nothing happened, he carefully stepped onto the surface of the boat, the thing rocking slightly and creaking with the motion. It took several seconds for him to check the deck and cabin. And another few painstakingly quiet seconds for him to check the belly of the boat. When he reappeared, he walked casually over to the side and leaned down.

      “Nothing,” he barked, lowering his gun. “The boat’s empty, and I can see the entire room from up here.”

      “Well, crap.”

      “You don’t think they went out of those –” The rest of the sentence was cut off as something huge and black fell from the ceiling all but covering Leyth. Dax barked out a curse as another huge black beast dropped on top of him at the same time. Hand-shaped talons scraped at his wounded shoulder as a beak the size of his thigh snapped dangerously close to his jugular.

      Dropping his gun as he fell to the floor, Dax swore. Rolling out of the way as those huge talons grabbed at him again.

      “What the HELL?!” He bit out as the black thing flew off, circling the roof of the building and aiming itself at him once again. Should have checked the damn ceiling! he thought, reaching for the knives strapped to his chest.

      He knew he wouldn’t have time to get to his Glock; the weapon had clattered well out of reach. The huge black bird screeched, the noise all but bursting his eardrums as it flew at him. It was an ugly bastard, human shaped from head to foot, with black-feathered bits of flapping skin that might pass for wings stretched from the man-bird’s arms down to its legs. Those ugly wings seemed to flap awkwardly, unnaturally. The crow’s deformed face still looked human but had a large beak in place of its mouth and sharp claw on its still human looking hands and feet.

      Dax rolled onto his back, not daring to stand. He needed to be a small target not a tall one. The crow flew directly at him, picking up speed. As it came within range, Dax could smell death and rot. Definitely a tomb, and yup, there they were, huge completely black eyes. Bastards.

      Shifters that had joined the Circle and become tombs could only shift-shape if the Magi running the band of rebels willed it. And the fact that the tomb’s eyes were black meant that the Magi was still possessing the tomb’s body. The soulless black pits acted as mirrors, so they could see what was happening through the tomb’s eyes from whatever corner of the Earth they were hiding in.

      The bird hit him with great force, raking its claw-like feet over his body. Thankfully his Kevlar-reinforced combats took most of the bite out of it. But it didn’t stop those deadly talons ripping their way through some of the material and sinking deeply into his flesh. He hissed as warm blood ran across his leg.

      The thing flapped its awkward, huge wings, making the air around him swirl, dust stirring and filling his eyes, making him cough and his eyes water. It flew up to the rafters of the building, circling once again and aiming directly at him.

      This time though, Dax was ready for it. As the ugly son-of-a-bitch flew at him again, talons poised and ready, Dax held his breath, adrenaline surging as those wings roared towards him, the air stirring, whipping across his face.

      He held his ground, waiting…

      Finally it was on him, those ugly feet scraping across his shins as that huge beak snapped at his face, aiming directly for his throat. Dax didn’t hesitate, he thrust his knife upwards, the blade catching the skin of the tomb’s wing and piercing its way straight through the thin flesh. He ripped his arm sideways, taking the sharp blade of the knife with him, creating a sizable tear in the wing of the beast.

      It let out an almighty scream that sounded a bit like a strangled cat.

      Ironic seeing as technically they were wolves fighting birds.

      As it tried to turn in mid-air, the injured wing gave out making him spiral heavily towards the floor. Dax jumped up, launching himself at the damn bird as it hit the floor in a heap. That sharp beak snapped at him, lacerating his arm as he struggled to shove it out of the way. Finally he got a good grip on the base of its chin and shoved its head backwards, plunging the knife deeply into the bastard’s throat and ripping it sideways, decapitating the deformed crow shifter. As its body fell limply to the floor, Dax swiped at the sweat and blood on his forehead.

      “Nice.” Leyth grinned from the edge of the boat, his own bird-tomb hanging from the ladder, its neck snapped at an awkward angle, wings tangled in the steps.

      “What the hell?!” Dax spat, eyeing the two ugly beasts.

      “Tombs.” Leyth nodded, looking equally disgusted. They were obviously crow shifters, gone Circle-wrong.

      Now as far as they could tell, the only time they could shift and change into their crow counterparts was when the Circle’s Magi directed the change.

      The problem being that the Magi weren’t shifters, they didn’t know how to properly direct the body into its alternate form so when they called to the soul of the animal, they only partially shifted, turning them into this ugly-looking half-human, half-animal beast. And they truly were ugly.

      “Holy shit.” Tamriel gaped as she arrived on the scene a few minutes later and took in the two huge half-shifted crows. “You really weren’t joking about the Circle’s shifters being gross.”

      “Yeah, why on earth they think it’s a good idea to join the Circle I’ll never know.” Julian wrinkled his nose. “Leyth – Sapphire and the team are on the way, I suggest you two get to Doc ASAP.”

      “I agree,” Tamriel snorted eyeing Leyth’s various talon-wounds and idly dabbing at one with the sleeve of her shirt.

      “Female, I’m fine,” Leyth snapped, looking down at her. His hard features instantly softened as he met her gaze. Leaning in he landed a kiss on her lips.

      “Well, you won’t want a sponge bath when you get home then will you?” she grinned.

      “Erm.– I mean…oh Tam, I’m so sore – I’m poorly – You need to help me.” He quickly backtracked as she wrapped her arms around his thick neck.

      Maker, those two were sickening.

      “Put it back in your trousers, Leyth,” Julian growled. “What have we found?”

      “Nothing,” Dax grumbled, eyeing the room they were in. He and Leyth had scoured the place from top to bottom and found nothing but a few firearms, a knife set and a mobile phone that had nothing on it bar a call history from a blocked number. Oh yeah, and one hell of a boat. You’d think they might leave at least one bit of information here though; it was thoroughly irritating that they had hit a dead end. No leads. And to top it all off when that arsehole had shot him, Dax had fallen on his back, crushing his laptop and his phone that were both stored in his backpack. Both were broken and useless. Which meant any information his search at home brought up would be sitting there waiting for him and he wouldn’t be able to access it. And in the unlikely event that Alison did manage to surface and get signal for her GPS chip, none of them would know about it.

      “Right,” Julian boomed. “Who knows how to drive a boat?”

      Alison sat heaving air into her lungs. Her muscles were shaking so uncontrollably she could barely swipe the hair sticking to her sweat-drenched forehead away. She was a killer. She had killed two men today.

      The thought made her sick, but more than that, the effort of doing so had left her incredibly weak. She hadn’t eaten properly in almost a month, and the energy it took to take those two tuhrned out had all but killed her. She’d managed to prop herself up against the wall in the damp dark hallway outside the bathroom. Looking at those two wasn’t an option. She was so cold she could barely feel her fingers and so weak she couldn’t for the life of her stand up. Maker only knew she’d tried.

      Rocking herself forward so she

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