Chapter Thirty One

*Caleb*

I hate plan B. Drake growled back at me.
As I lunged near Keo, the Shadow lunged back at me, knife in hand. I snapped my jaws at the Shadow but I missed. Keo had turned quickly when I lunged and had grabbed the Shadow around its neck, holding it away from me. Keo bared his fangs at the Shadow, growling. Keo winced in pain, I looked up at him confused, but quickly saw why. The Shadow had struck Keo in his stomach with the knife.
Movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eyes. I turned my head back and forth. Growling and snapping at the Shadows that surrounded us. I counted 11 in total.
I moved closer to Keo. I was nervous, Shadows were a pain to fight. Especially in the dark. Shadows were all black. Literally like a shadow. They didn’t have eyes or mouths or different hair color when they used their ability. They were pure black like an actual shadow. What was worse is that they could disappear into shadows anywhere and pop out of other shadows that were close by. They had to actually touch the shadow they were in or moving to but fighting one person with an ability wasn’t the easiest. Forget about fighting 11 of them and having to keep count of them. At the same time while fighting and making sure you were watching the regular shadows around you. Drake needed to get here really fast if we were going to survive through this.
“He’s coming right?” Keo asked me.
I growled in response and then whined. I was hoping Keo would understand he was coming but it would still be a bit.
“We’ll have to hold on until then. How hard could it be? There’s only 11 of them. Right?” Keo laughed uneasily.
I whined, unsure.
“Let’s find out.” Keo said and I looked at him confused.
Keo stomped his foot on the ground and a dome appeared around us, surrounding the area. Unlike Ariya’s, Keo’s energy manipulation was white. It covered the entire area around us, brightening the area up. All the shadows on the ground and near us disappeared, revealing the actual number of Shadow users surrounding us. Another 6 Shadow users popped up. Awesome.
Keo whistled, “17 of you huh? Don’t you think that is a little overkill for 2 people?”
“You mean…3” The Shadow that Keo was holding by the throat choked out.
“Only if you are all still alive by then.” Keo growled at the Shadow.
The Shadow twisted the blade in Keo’s stomach at that moment and Keo shouted in pain. The dome around us cracked and the Shadows lunged at us, weapons ready. Keo tightened his grip and snapped the neck of the Shadow he had. As he let the Shadow’s lifeless body drop to the floor, he grabbed the blade that was in his stomach and ripped it out. I lunged at the Shadow closest to me, sinking my teeth into its side. I clamped my jaws down and pulled harshly. 2 down. 15 remaining. If they were all like this, then this was going to be easy.
Wishful thinking on my part. They had a lot more in numbers than we did.
- -
*Keothi*
17 people to fight against would have been a lot easier if I wasn’t hungry. I couldn’t heal myself and I hated losing control. I also didn’t want to kill everyone. But it might just be necessary. Especially if it meant I needed to heal. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t just start feeding on the Shadow in front of me. If I did that the others would rush me and feeding would have been pointless. I might have to go at this without feeding. But I also needed to make sure that Caleb was ok no matter what. He was strong so I shouldn’t need to protect him. Then again, things could have changed in the last 14 years. I don’t know how anyone really was anymore.
I took a deep breath as I ripped the blade out of my stomach. I moved as quickly as I could, which in my current state was about as fast as the Shadows. 3 of them immediately went in for the attack. I wiped the blade off on my pants as I dodged their attacks. I side stepped the first one as it went for my left side. I closed the gap between me and that Shadow, successfully dodging the attack from the second Shadow. I spun around, knife in hand, I hit my target when the 3rd Shadow lunged at me trying to shove a blade through my chest. Drake had kicked my butt so many times at speeds I could barely register that this should have been easy. But I was weak and hungry, so I moved a lot slower than I needed to.
My blade went into the skull of the 3rd Shadow but the 1st who had already recovered from my side step was able to bring his blade down right onto my shoulder. I roared in pain. The blade didn’t cut clean through me but it was enough to make my arm drop to my side, unable to be used for the moment. I grabbed hold of the blade with my right hand to hold it in place and turned to kick as hard as I could with my right leg. The Shadow flew back into another Shadow. I pulled the blade up to dislodge it from my shoulder, growling in pain.
Another major hit like that and the dome I had put up to keep the Shadows from using the shadows was going to fall apart. Hopefully Drake will get here soon. I don’t know how long I will be able to hold out for. I could hear some screams from behind me as Caleb took out another Shadow. At least we were down to 13 now. If I was at full strength I could have made some type of weapon to be able to use against these things but where I was at right now, it wasn’t going to happen. It was taking all of my ability to be able to keep the dome up. I had to rely on just my hand to hand combat and weapon techniques.
The blade that the Shadow used that was now in my possession was a flame sword. At least I didn’t need to wipe my blood off of it before using it. I activated the flame as another Shadow came at me. It swung the blade down with both hands on it to try to put as much force behind the blade as possible. I blocked upward and that was my biggest mistake. Other Shadows rushed me and impaled me with their blades. I screamed in pain, unable to block any of them.
Caleb rushed to my defense but it was too late. The dome around us shattered giving the Shadows the advantage by being able to use their ability. Caleb tore into another Shadow before it was able to use its ability. The ones around me left their blades in me and disappeared below, but the one in front of me stayed, grinning viciously. At least there were only 12 left.
Caleb ran toward me. It was taking every last bit of strength left in me to keep the one in front of me from slicing through me. I dropped to my knees trying to keep stable enough. Caleb ran up and attacked the one in front of me snapping ruthlessly at his throat. A Shadow popped up from the ground in defense of the other successfully impaling Caleb. Caleb yelped in pain. I heard a deep growl coming from my right, Drake. At least he was finally here. The Shadow that impaled Caleb shoved Caleb to the ground pinning him there. Caleb whined in pain. Seeing Caleb hurt set me off and I gave in to my primal side. I lunged at the Shadow that pinned Caleb and sunk my fangs into his neck. I drank deeply but quickly. I didn’t take the time to finish feeding before ripping the Shadow’s throat out.
The Shadows that had impaled me suddenly surrounded me again. They all ripped their blades out preparing to fight Drake. The blood loss was so massive and so instant that I fell to my knees next to Caleb. The world around me started to fade out. I was losing consciousness from the severity of my injuries. Caleb whined next to me as I fell to the ground.
Drake was immediately by our side.
“Keo! Caleb! Stay with me!” Drake shouted, terrified he was about to lose us.
I watched as he removed the blade that pinned Caleb and healed him. Oddly enough, the Shadows didn’t move on Drake yet. It was like they were waiting to see what was going to happen. After Drake was sure that Caleb wasn’t going to die, he turned to me. He ripped open his hand with his mouth and put it up to mouth to force feed me. I bit into his hand. It wasn’t going to get me back to perfect health but it would stabilize my injuries enough. When the Shadows saw Drake bringing me back they decided not to wait any longer.
The Shadows lunged at Drake while using their ability. With 10 of them left they quickly began to overpower Drake. 2 of them broke off coming at Caleb and I. This was the reason everyone feared us. It was moments like these. I watched, unable to do anything but try not to pass out as Drake abandoned his humanity and gave in to his primal side. I knew he was doing it to protect us. To get us out of there. But to any outsider, he was a monster that would kill anything that stood in his way. Drake’s eyes changed completely to a blood red color as he snapped purely to his primal side. That was when the blood shed truly began.