Amos peered at the soldiers below with an irreverent indifference. The shifters rallying at the pits were no different to the angels banished from heaven.
Beneath a sky stained with crimson and smoke, the dealer stayed perched like an eagle on the edge of the wall by the pits, invisible to the naked eye, watching the pitiful creatures whisper amongst themselves... he didn't need to hear to know what they spoke about.
They knew. Despite the lack of evidence, deep down they all knew that Aura was not from this world. To them, she didn't belong here. And even if she wasn't the angel the flames had asked for, they didn't care. They were afraid of the unknown and what terrors might come after it.
And yet... for reasons he couldn't begin to fathomshe still wanted to help them.
He wouldn't have thought twice about personally delivering their souls into the underworld and leaving them stranded in the lakes of limbo to drown for eternity.
Loathing had settled in his heart, he had seen this same pattern for over a millennia. The outcome was always the same. History had a tendency to repeat itself. But some things had to be learned.
So far, Aura hadn't had to expose herself to anyone at all. They were already gathered at the fighting pits, Amber at the head rallying the shifters. They appeared, to Amos, like worker bees surrounding the queen, swarming the beige coloured dust of the pits and filling the vast area with their numbers.
"There are MONSTERS, holding US prisoners within our own home!" She cried, her face contorted with rage. On a raised platform, she could just about be seen by the masses despite her short frame, that bone straight honey blonde hair tied into a tight ponytail behind her head.
"Maiming OUR BRETHREN, BURNING OUR TERRITORY TO THE GROUND AND WE ARE LETTING THIS HAPPEN?"
The majority of the shifters around her roared in agreement, the rest stayed quiet as though uncomfortable. Despite their numbers, they were too afraid of Aura to act out.
"IN A PRIDE OF LIONS, if ONE ENDANGERS THE REST OF THE PRIDE? WE GET RID OF THEM!" She screamed, voice carrying an echoe. "I SAY WE FIND THE BITCH AND THROW HER OVER THE WALL."
The shifters roared, overstimulated and afraid, but agreeable.
He fought the urge to tear into every single one of them.
Amidst his fury, Amos noticed something, so tiny the dealer wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been looking in that direction.
He recognised that buzzcut anywhere.
He was not, however, familiar with the wolves holding that owner of the buzzcut back. Curiously, Amos peered at Markus' top fighters restraining Hayden between them as he bunched his fists, all of them watching from a distance, expressionless and apart from the crowds. He wondered if these years Aura had fought with them had developed a sense of loyalty towards her, if their distaste and hostility for the crowds meant anything.
"FIND THE FREAK AND SEND HER BACK!" The lion roared.
The instructors were nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, before the people could react, there was the subtle shifting between them.
Amos readied himself.
The dealer felt his body pull towards that warm familiar energy, he had to fight his instinct to stay close and guard.
Seeing her emerge between the shifters, nestled upon a snow leopard the size of a polar bear, making her easy to spot above the people, it stirred something within him. Something ancient. As Skye moved, the two were separating the masses as though it were Moses and the sea. They were afraid of her.
Amos didn't know how it wasn't obvious from the very start. Her olive skin, browning the more time she spent in the sun, held a subtle glow about it that just wasn't prevalent in anyone else. She was light in a sea of darkness... a star in the night sky.
"I'm here." Though she spoke quietly, it was without a doubt she was heard by all.
The wolves stirred from their corners, integrating with the rest of the shifters and moving in towards the angel. Before Amos could assume they were going to attack her, he quickly realised that they moved in to protect her flanks.
The shifters separated further, now with a wall of wolves and a snow leopard protecting her. Hayden stalked quietly at a distance.
Markus must have known this was going to happen, and sent the orders to protect the angel should she leave her room.
Amber's contented leer from the shifters approval quickly vanished, exposing her shock at Auras companions, an expression she quickly covered. "You protect her?" She accused, keeping that stony expression.
The wolves didn't bother to reply, merely continued to form a steady moving wall around Aura and Skye, leaving space only for her to move forward towards the lioness.
"It doesn't have to be like this." Aura reasoned, her gaze unwavering.
Amos wondered if she was manipulating the emotion of the shifters around her, to calm them down, as they visibly went silent and withdrawn.
Closer, she was getting closer to the makeshift platform.
"EASY for her to say!" Amber screamed, aiming her words at the people around her, "WHEN ITS ONLY HER THEY WANT. THIS CAN ALL BE OVER IF WE GIVE HER UP!"
"You know that's not true." Aura stopped, right before her. On top of Skye, she towered over Amber, the lion jutting her large chest despite the leopards growl, as though it gave her any semblance of power in the situation.
"Even if you give me up, they will not settle... not that now they all know you're here." Aura announced.
Amber's eyes widened with disbelief, "AND WHOS FAULT IS THAT GUYS—"
"It was inevitable." Aura cut. She turned her head towards the rest of the shifters, "It was going to happen regardless, even still, I deeply apologise on my behalf.... "
Wild curly red locks bounced through the crowd, making a zip line towards Aura.
Tanya emerged at the front the crowds, eyes wide in shock as Aura begun to say, ".... it's true. I am the angel they're looking for."
This seemed to be the words to break the spell on the shifters, their glazed eyes narrowed in fury. The wolves formed an unmoving wall around Aura that despite the numbers, the shifters couldn't get passed.
"We're all gonna die because of you—"
"You should've died with the last of the angels—"
"Let's throw her out now and maybe they'll leave us alone!"
If these words affected Aura in any way, she didn't show it. Still, Amos heart sank with sadness at the lack of love she received from the people she wanted to help.
That sadness quickly dissipated to be replaced with venom, as an arm broke through the wall of werewolves and claws snagged her calf.
Aura flinched in pain, the claws had pierced through her leggings and left deep jagged lines in her skin. Skye switched onto the attacker and aimed to tear off the hand that hurt her, but it retreated in fear before she could.
The scuttling of the crowds trying to get to Aura, to hurt her— Amos readied himself to wreak havoc among the masses until Skye let out a bloodcurdling roar that made the ground tremble.
It stopped everyone in their tracks.
Even Amber, who had stood gloating at the scene, now appeared as though she felt the sound in her bones.
"I want to help you!" Aura yelled in frustration, Skye stomped her front paws as though to emphasise her words.
"Yet you're trying to kill me?" She belted, "How much time have you spent cowering in fear or plotting to get rid of me when you could have been preparing traps?! Going through formation and defence strategies?! Gathering all the consecrated weapons you could find so you're not just sitting here like ducks waiting for them to break in and kill you all?"
That sense of rage between the shifters disappeared as they quickly began to realise she was right.
Panic now settled.
"How much time do we have left to make sure we're ready to face our enemies?" Aura cried. "And is that time you're willing to spend on worrying about giving me up, or ensuring your own survival through SELF DEFENCE. You forget who you are! What you've been trained to do your entire lives! This was going to happen inevitably it's what you've been trained for!"
"They will leave us alone if—"
"You know that isn't true." Aura cut through Amber's attempts at manipulation. "You all know what these creatures are like. You know the history of what happened to my home. You know the story about the demon king. He is greed and when he knows there's more to take he will not settle. Look at what he did to the rest of this world? The wasteland it's become. Giving me up won't change a single thing."
Hayden appeared beside Amber, stepping onto her platform. "She's right." He declared.
Although he was new to this realm and the compound, it was undeniable the influence he held over the others. Amos wasn't completely sure why, but the shifters felt a pull to follow his commands.
"You have spent way too long listening to a jealous cub grasping at the chance to get rid of her competition." Amber flushed bright red at Hayden's words, her mouth opening and closing as though to refuse but no sound came out.
"We need to develop a plan to get out of this alive."
~
Amos followed Aura silently. She had gotten through the worst of it, the shifters had been swayed by her with Hayden's help and were currently joining together to coordinate a defence and attack depending on whether they wanted to start the fight or not.
Skye had gone off at Aura's request to search for the instructors and come back to her once she'd found them.
Aura wondered what had happened to the green eyed snake, Rayne. She would never forget the pain she endured on her first day at the fighting pits, feeling her hair being torn out of her scalp as she had dragged her towards Rodrick, the lyrite Aura had paralysed as a child.
He never spoke to anyone again after that, and rarely did he ever leave his room. He would just lay, almost lifelessly in his bed, with witches to bring him food to eat.
The enchanters could repair a great many injuries but due to the complications of being a lyrite, having two souls and such, the reparations he needed risked merging his souls together and creating something quite like a demon.
If the monsters broke in he wouldn't even be able to defend himself, Aura noted with a tinge of guilt. But the memory of the contents of his heart, and the fact that it was unchanging despite these years, was enough to rid her of it.
For now, she only wanted to speak to Rayne and the other creepy looking instructor. Horas.
From Amos' understanding, and Aura's, Rayne is the child of a shifter and a demon. She was dangerous and vulnerable in this situation and Aura needed to know if she was capable of switching sides or if she would remain loyal to the base.
As they sauntered through a dimly lit corridor in shades of beige and brown, they passed a door that sparked Amos' interest.
You go on, I'll be right behind you, he said to her telepathically.
As her silhouette shrunk the further away she got, Amos slipped quietly through the doors. It was Amber and a few of the other shifters that had called for Aura's surrender.
The room was empty save for a single table in the middle, which they formed a circle behind.
"We need to get rid of her. I don't care how pretty her speech was. We can worry about how we're going to defend ourselves afterwards." Amber seethed.
A dark skinned man beside her seemed as though he were growing impatient with the topic of their conversation. "Amber what is the point?" He drawled, folding his arms and leaning his towering frame against the wood of the table.
"The point is that she's put us all in danger?!!" She gasped incredulously.
The other members of the group stressed their agreement. They all had the same golden glowing eyes.
They must all be lions in the same pride.
"We were going to be discovered in the end through no fault of her own anyway." He shrugged. He was the only male in a room full of women.
"Toko—"
Amos grew tired and slithered towards the dark skinned man, Toko.
His mind closed away from their conversation, as he slipped into the lions mind, and used his own doubt in Amber to plant more seeds.
'She's jealous. She feels threatened by Aura and is using this situation as a motive to disguise her true intentions....'
"You feel threatened by her." Toko snapped. "That's why you're really doing this."
Amber's eyes widened in disbelief. Amos didn't stick around to hear her response, he creeped towards the next victim and seeped into the contents of her mind.
She was a slight girl with brown skin and glossy dark hair, cut close to her scalp. A quick ransacking through her thoughts and memories told him that she had strong feelings for Toko.
'Just watch how heated she gets around him... they're fighting right now and she's blushing..... they've been sleeping together....'
Amos grinned with wicked amusement as the slight girl bunched her fists. Just moments before she was behind Amber, supporting her every word and now she wanted to tear her apart.
'You can see how hard her nipples are through her shirt... she's always finding excuses to touch him.'
"Margo you have to understand that this girl is a serious threat?! It's not just me?! Look at what she has brought down upon us!" Amber flipped, turning her attention onto the slight brown girl Amos was beside.
He sent a picture into Margo's mind of entangled limbs. Played it through her thoughts to cause chaos.
' "Harder!" Amber breathed, her doe eyes narrowed lustfully at the adonis on top of her, core pooling with each of Toko's vigorous thrusts—'
"You're trying to distract me from the fact that you two have been fucking behind my back aren't you?" Margo snapped.
Amber's eyes widened in shock and bewilderment.
"What are you talking about?" Toko spoke, his voice breaking with hurt, "Margo I wouldn't do that to you."
"Liar." She hissed, "I know what you've been up to all these nights, sneaking away with each other—"
Amos paused momentarily as he spotted Amber look away as if in shame and wondered if there were some truth in the web of lies he was beginning to spin.
The next victim was quiet, and fearful of Amber. It was easy putting thoughts into her head, and one by one Amos jumped from mind to mind, noting the delicious glee he felt from the situation.
They had gone from plotting Aura's demise to arguing amongst themselves and it wasn't long before a cat fight broke out.
Amos left the unfurnished room, feeling his chest swell with joy. It had been such a long time since he had done something like that... he almost missed it.
He flew silently down the corridor, leaving hell to break loose behind him and followed the pure trail of Aura's essence. A soft golden light he could almost bite into. It reminded him of a morning sun, breaking through cloud and the light blending a flurry of colour across the skies...
It didn't take long before he realised that something bitter began to mingle with her golden trail.
It was dark, and toxic like polluted air. It's sickly essence had been waiting before stalking her like prey.
Amos' felt his stomach drop.