Page 192 of Smoke and Lure

“No!No, no, no—” Everett's pleading turned into a blood-curdling scream as Aodh took hold of the man’s left bicep and yanked, ripping his arm out of the socket.

The other humans screamed as blood sprayed out of the snapped arteries, and Aodh began to beat Everette over the head with the limb.

The leaders rushed toward the doors, tripping and clambering over each other to bang on the glass, pleading with the large group of Vampires and Lupines staring on from the outside.

“Let us out—”

“Please, let us out—”

“Stop him...he’ll kill us all!”

Not a single Vampire or Lupine moved to assist.The leaders had sealed themselves into their fate.

Everette twisted and thrashed, right arms swinging wildly, trying to block blows as he screamed for mercy.

Aodh ignored the man’s pleas, but dropped the left arm to the floor, only to free his hand to grasp one of the man’s flailing legs.He squeezed until Everette's femur crushed under his grip.

The man’s body began to convulse from the pain.

Releasing him, Aodh watched Everette’s body collapse into a heap on the floor.

When Aodh stepped toward him, Everette clambered to his feet and attempted to hobble away.

Aodh let him move further and further away from him, until Everette had managed to hop and drag his lame leg behind him to the far wall alone.

“When you wake up in Hell this night, I want you to remember every human woman you made sell their bodies for breeding to gain pennies on their account books that didn’t last.I want your mind to be tortured with every man who couldn’t provide enough for his family in the slums you let fester and lower himself to persuade his teenage daughter to sell her womb for crumbs in her newborn baby's mouth.May the Great Spirit never allow your soul to rest from the vision of squalor you forced every man, woman, and child under the shameful moniker of Dispatch to live in.”

With one big breath, Aodh released his dragon’s fire toward the man, heating the enclosed space until Everette's body disintegrated into a heap of black dust.

Aodh turned and stared at the crowd of leaders, faces now black with soot.“You all are just as guilty as Everette.You conspired and chose not to stop his madness for your gain.“

“You won’t get away with this!”One of the leaders, a reed-thin black female with straight black hair held high and severe at the top of her head, boldly raised her chin, took a single step away from the huddled, and shot a harsh look—recklessly making some last stand.“Humans will rise again and claim power over you shifters,” she sneered loudly.

Aodh held the foolish woman’s gaze.

Liekki barked out a laugh.

“Humans don’t want power, foolish.They, like all, want peace.”

The woman twisted her face into a mask of hate and tsked.

Mckenna, may I?

He didn’t deem it necessary to respond to the human leader, but Aodh offered permission to his female guard.You may.

Hydra, in a swift move, crossed the distance and with a single, back-handed swing struck the mouthy human leader.

The woman went sailing past her fellow petrified leaders, causing a crunch-splat sound as her head contacted their protective glass wall, seconds before her deadweight dropped to the floor with a thump.

The group stood terrified that Aodh would allow the same to them.He’d had enough of them.He turned and met the gaze of the Drahkelle who had stood guard for many days protecting his mate-wife, and just silenced the idiotic woman.“Hydra, let them out.”

There was a collective sigh from the leaders.

Smiling, Hydra shifted, her pale-sienna dragon the smallest of those who accompanied Aodh, but still powerful.

As the leaders parted away from the door, allowing the beast to set them free, Hydra’s dragon charged forward, shattering the thick glass.

The moment they saw the opening, they ran, pouring out the door like water through a dam, a few calling out thanks.

---