Noctura

sixty

I stand back up straight and Jinwoo gives me a concerned look.

"When do we go out there?" Someone asks.

"Right now," Yoon responds. "Humans, have your weapons?"

I look around at all the people holding rifles and shotguns and big trench knives.

"Nocturas, are you ready?"

Everyone in the room is nodding.

I can feel the nervous energy.

"Minho,"

I turn to Jinwoo.

"Are you okay?" He puts his hand on my shoulder. "Are we okay?"

"We're okay," I assure him. "We'll be fine out there. We just have to take out the gangs, okay?"

"How do we know?"

"You'll know. Just go for the throat of anyone trying to attack you, okay? If a human starts shooting at you... just protect yourself, Jinwoo. Hopefully they'll understand pretty quickly that we're on their side."

Jinwoo gives me a shaky nod.

"Everyone ready?"

Jinwoo and I both look over at Yoon.

He looks directly into my eyes for a moment before turning to the door and putting his hand on the knob.

I hold my breath. I can hear my heart beating in my ears.

One.

Two.

Three.

Yoon opens the door and everyone charges out into the street.

He leads us toward the burning building. He leads us toward the war.

We come upon a scene of guns going off, Nocturas attacking people, screaming, dead bodies lying on the ground.

I don't have much time to process anything, though.

I immediately feel my eyes turn and I look around for the gang members.

They're on either side of us and they're right in front of us.

It seems like they're everywhere.

"Alliance, fight!" Yoon's scream rips through his throat and everyone charges forward, guns firing, people pouncing.

I go to the left, jumping up and coming back down on top of someone. My teeth dig into their throat as I rip their throat open, feeling the blood in and around my mouth.

I feel someone grab my arm and try to rip me away but I turn around and shove them off of me. I'm going to pounce on them when my left shoulder suddenly jerks forward.

Blood drips from my shoulder as I turn around. I see an AAN member trying to reload his gun.

Instead of attacking him, I stare into his eyes before turning back around and throwing the Noctura onto the ground, digging my teeth into their throat.

There's a loud scream on my right and I whip around to see an AAN woman on her back, trying to defend herself from a Noctura man above her.

I race over toward her and throw myself at the Noctura man.

We roll onto the ground and I end up on top. I trap his arms and he snarls at me. I clamp my jaw around his throat.

I stand up and turn to the woman.

She stares at me, wide-eyed, waiting for death.

Instead, I help her to her feet. "The Alliance is fighting with you."

She doesn't get to say anything before I race over toward Jinwoo, who is standing over someone, someone else in his grip.

He rips open the person's throat in his grip.

I see another Noctura moving toward him.

But I get to him first.

I jump onto the man. He pushes me over, though, and pins me down. I struggle against him as he grins down at me.

He opens his mouth but Jinwoo suddenly shoves him off of me. Jinwoo doesn't hesitate to clamp his jaw around the Noctura's throat.

The Noctura gasps and sputters blood from his mouth until he goes still.

Jinwoo looks up at me and wipes the blood off his mouth.

We make eye contact for a quick second before heading separate ways.

Where's Yoon?

I look around at the chaos unfolding around me. Everywhere I look, there are people getting killed—both Noctura and human. There's blood staining the streets and screams ripping through the night air. It sounds like the cries of the dead, even though the cries are coming from those who are alive.

For now.

I don't see Yoon anywhere, but I know he must be somewhere close.

Who's winning?

Right now, it doesn't look like either side is winning. It just looks like so many people are dying. It just looks like both sides are losing.

After these few seconds of observing the battle around, I take a deep breath, spot a gang member, and continue fighting.