Page 37 of Hybrid Heroics

My vampire leaned down, his lips nearly brushing my demon’s ear as he whispered, “Fuck around and find out, Stone. I’m not playing today.”

And then Novak turned his glare to Vaughn, who held his hands up in surrender, shaking his head. “I got that loud and clear. This isn’t the time or place to fight.”

“Anyone else want to test me today?” my vampire growled. “I’ve fucking had it. So we can take this shit outside.”

“Then we’re taking it outside,” Stone rasped, lunging toward Novak.

The pitch black arms of his demonic form wrapped around Novak’s waist, tackling him. They knocked over two chairs before Stone threw my vampire through the bay window. He leaped out behind him, broken glass crunching beneath his feet. And the view changed as the dryad got up to follow them.

My vampire and my demon collided, fists flying as they danced around a destroyed yard that was likely once immaculate. Blood dripped from Novak’s eyes as his skin faded to the ashy gray of bloodlust. His cheeks sunk in, his eyes bleeding as he hissed at Stone.

Wait. Had I ever heard Novak hiss before?

To my left, Palmer shoved my druid. “This is your fault. We should just kill her and end this bullshit.”

“Fuck you. That’s my aunt,” York snarled.

Okay. One question was answered, but what did she do?

A vine creeped around the porch post, striking out at my mage... My mage with no storms in his eyes.

As York choked Palmer, Briggs shifted. The charcoal wolf rushed to my right, toward Vaughn, but my fae sidestepped the attack.

I scratched my head. This was way more chaos than normal with them. They were relatively mild when it came to in-fighting. Usually, I was the one stirring up bullshit and causing brawls.

“You don’t want to do this, Briggs,” Vaughn calmly stated, but my wolf was already mid-air.

They slammed together, a crash so loud following their fall that I grimaced. I couldn’t even watch them anymore. It was cringe-worthy, though I didn’t say that out loud.

Palmer pulled a dagger from nowhere, the rusted steel hitting his hand just in time for him to take a swing at York. My druid glanced down at his ripped shirt and bleeding chest, a humorous chuckle slipping past his lips. With a jerk of his hand, the vine around Palmer’s neck tightened, lifting him off his feet.

Wind whirled around them, and I waited for the vortex to come.

But it didn’t.

Novak and Stone were locked in battle, their hands wrapped around the other’s upper arms as they snapped their teeth like rabid animals. And the wind Palmer stirred up blew their hair in… two different directions?

I was no scientist, but that wasn’t how gravity worked.

None of this was right.

I walked into the imagery, studying my guys closely, picking out the discrepancies.

All the memories inside my mind were just as bright as they had been at the moment in time they were captured… So why did Alric’s real-time images have a tint to them?

The colors were all wrong, like someone had dropped a sepia filter in front of my face.

York’s island eyes didn’t sparkle like the ocean crashing against the shore. Novak’s normally liquid gold irises held no glimmer in their mustard yellow depths. Stone’s eyes weren’t lapis with the blue starbursts making the black background look like a galaxy; they were just black. Briggs’ gaze didn’t hold the forest inside them, only a dull, mossy color. And thunderstorms didn’t roll through Palmer’s irises. And Vaughn’s icy glare was just cold, no snowflakes or frost or amusement.

Those were the things I paid attention to most. That old saying about the eyes being windows to the soul was true. Even when their faces were carefully blank, there was always something to see within the intensity of their gazes.

“You’ve all been waiting for me to cross through the portal into the druids’ realm,” Alric explained. “But I didn’t need to physically be there to spread my power. I wasn’t expecting to be here in your head while all this was happening, though that does make the trap so much sweeter.

“You see, I knew you were looking for me, following my breadcrumbs, so I led you there, knowing that I had an army waiting. The cherry on top is the fact that while they’re fighting each other, they’ve left your body unattended, because they can’t seem to get their shit together long enough to protect you.”

I glanced at Alric, thinking through his words as I continued to circle my guys.

They probably were losing their shit right about now. Because I hadn’t been able to tell them anything useful before I jumped into my headspace to hang out with this asshole. I had a plan; I just couldn’t share it with the class without Alric hearing it, too.