A Gray Area

by Amy Sumida

  And when I knew this was mostly my fault.

  “Amara,” he whispered. “Cease, my love. I'm sorry I shouted at you. I'm sorry I've bound you to me. I... fuck; I can't stand your tears. Please stop crying.”

  Malik eased back onto the bed and cradled me in his lap. I sniffed the tears away and pushed away from him again.

  “Malik, I love you,” I said softly.

  “I love you—”

  I held a hand to his lips and stopped him. “But I need some time to deal with this.”

  His jaw clenched, and my neck went ice cold. Malik nodded.

  “Take all the time you need,” he said crisply.

  “Mal, I—”

  My phone rang. Malik growled in frustration as I climbed off his lap.

  “I can't ignore it,” I said apologetically. I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and answered. “Hello?”

  “They escaped!” Alex shouted above a cacophony of alarms, shouts, and heavy, running footsteps.

  “What?” I flinched and Malik's mark flared in response. “Who escaped?”

  “The residents. The ones under watch,” Alex rambled. “They all shifted into monsters and broke free. All of them at once! Almost as if it was planned.”

  I looked at Malik; he was already pulling on his pants. He had excellent hearing, but he hadn't needed it; Alex's voice was echoing out of the phone.

  “Do you hear me, Amara? I need you out on the streets now!” Alex shouted. “Mobilize FEAR and head toward Anacostia Air Force Base; that's where the medical facility is. Our men are already in pursuit. Hopefully, we can corral them between us.”

  “On our way!” I tossed the phone on the rumpled bed and raced to my closet.

  A flare of warmth spread down my back reassuringly, and I glanced at Malik. He nodded; It will be all right. I spared him a quick smile even as doubt soured my stomach. I pulled on a pair of jeans and then a sweater. Boots went over my feet and then we pounded down the stairs while I mass texted the others; told them to meet us at the Wilds. I slid into my coat and raced out the front door. Malik took my hand, and we ran down the street together. Power surged from his mark, and I put on speed. I couldn't knock this aspect of our bond.

  We reached the Wilds before everyone else. Morning was the one time of day when the bar was closed. I had to use my key to get in, and then I raced up the steps to Landry's apartment; leaving Malik below.

  “Landry!” I pounded down the hallway.

  “What in the woods is your problem?” Landry snarled as he stumbled out of his room in his boxers.

  “I need to borrow the truck,” I said urgently. “The gray humans have turned into monsters and escaped!”

  Landry gaped at me a second and then lurched back into his bedroom. He came back a second later and tossed me a set of keys.

  “Be careful, kid!” He shouted after me.

  “I will!” I pounded back downstairs as the rest of FEAR came into the bar. “We're taking the truck.” I ran out past them.

  “Malik and I should fly,” Kyrian suggested. “We'll get there faster and can scope the streets from above.”

  “You'll be seen,” Lily pointed out.

  “I hardly think that will matter in light of the monsters pouring through the streets,” Kyrian said dryly.

  “This may be the day Supes come out of the market,” I muttered as we rounded the corner into the alley where Landry parked his cars.

  Luckily, the truck was at the end of the line of vehicles. I headed for it, but Malik caught my arm.

  “He's right; we should take to the sky,” Malik said.

  “All right; I'll follow you.”

  “No; you misunderstand,” he said. “You're coming with me. I can't leave you.” He lowered his voice. “Not right after what happened.” The mark flared. “Please, Amara.”

  It was the please that did it. I nodded and tossed the keys to Davorin.

  “Follow us in the truck; I'll signal you when I see the creatures.”

  Malik slipped off his shirt; his body heat radiating through the frigid air. Wings sprouted from his shoulders and fluttered awake, but the rest of him stayed human-looking.

  “You can do that?” Davorin stared at Malik in surprise.

  “Only the strongest of us can.” Malik smirked as he settled me against his chest; facing out. “I thought I'd save the battleform until it's needed.”

  “Good idea.” Kyrian hit his gold, tri-winged lapel pin; a symbol of the Arcs. It was also the release mechanism for his mechanical wings. Feathered, white wings unfolded behind him; looking completely natural. “Ready, Bleiten?”

  Malik didn't answer. Instead, his muscles bunched, his knees bent, and then we were airborne. His enormous wings beat the air with whip cracks of sound. Cold stung my cheeks, but my mark heated and the chill vanished. Malik's aura moved forward around me; blending with mine. I inhaled sharply to see it; the only time our auras blended was when we made love. The mark was full of surprises.

  But I couldn't think about it now. I focused on the streets below instead. It didn't take long for me to get my bearings and then I pointed toward the Air Force Base. “That way.”

  Malik veered and Kyrian followed. Beneath us, Davorin drove Landry's truck out of the Supemarket. He raced through the streets; Jason and Leo keeping an eye on us from the bed of the truck and leaning forward to shout directions at Davorin through the small, sliding window in the back of the cab.

  In the distance, I could see thin lines of smoke across the channel. Traffic was normal here but just a few streets ahead of us, it started to get clogged. People were getting out of their cars and shouting at each other. No one even noticed us flying above them, and I hoped their distraction would continue because I couldn't hide us. If I did, we wouldn't be able to direct Davorin. A few blocks away, I saw military vehicles setting up roadblocks on every street that led toward Anacostia. Far beyond that, I saw a rolling, scuttling, scrambling horde of creatures. But they were closing the distance fast.

  “There!” I shouted.

  The creatures had formed a pack and found added strength in numbers. That was how they'd gotten off the base and it was also how they intended to make their way through the city. My heart clenched as I saw the path they were on. They were headed straight to the Gray. Damn it all; like any wounded animal, they just wanted to go home and lick their wounds in peace.

  And they would never make it. Not if I had anything to do about it.

  Because, as much as my heart wept for them, they had sunk completely into monster mentality. And these monsters were on a rampage. The herd rolled over everything in its path; clawing tearing, biting, and slashing its way through the D.C. streets. Anyone unfortunate enough to be caught between them and their destination screamed briefly before being mowed down. It was a slaughter.

  Varian had been right; it would have been far more merciful to have killed these people before they changed. And it would have saved lives as well.

  My morning was turning out to be full of regrets

  I signaled to Leo and Jason, and they yelled at Davorin. The truck pulled over and Dav parked. Everyone started jumping out of the vehicle as I pointed down at an open spot about fifty yards ahead of the shambling mass of monsters. As we circled down, the whomp-whomp-whomp of a helicopter came from our left. It hovered above us and soldiers started propelling down black ropes to the street. They were in full combat gear with weapons strapped to their backs. As soon as we landed, Davorin and the others ran up to us and so did one of the soldiers.

  “We're here to assist,” the man said. “We'll hold the perimeter and await your orders.”

  I blinked at that. Alex hadn't mentioned that we'd have military support on our side of the corral. Not that I was complaining.

  “Shoot to kill,” Kyrian said crisply. “Try to keep it close-range so you don't hit us and be as merciful as possible; those were people once.”

  “No offense, Sir, but we won't hit you.”

  “W
e move fast; I'd rather not risk it. Focus on guaranteed kill-shots.”

  “Yes, Sir!” The man went back to his team to relay the orders—his eyes widening in Malik's direction as he did—and the soldiers spread out behind us.

  I glanced over to see what had caught the man's attention. Malik had stripped while Kyrian was busy with the soldier. His pants were folded neatly on the hood of a nearby car with his boots beside them, and he was shifted into his battleform. I shivered; my body clenching in need. Then I clamped my teeth together in shock. I'd always found Malik's battleform attractive but it had never been like this; this aching, shivering wanting. If anything, I should have been scared of his battleform after how rough he'd been with me in it. But my mind hadn't gotten the memo; all it could think about was the feel of him pushing inside me and his teeth in my neck. It had been painful but it had also been the sharpest pleasure that I'd ever felt. Sweet summer sap! Snap out of it, kid!

  I tended to use Landry's curses when I was upset, and his voice was always the one that chided me in my head; the voice of my conscience. It was enough to focus me. Luckily, all that had only taken seconds; long enough for Malik to shift and then move to stand beside me. His black boxer shorts were strained and torn in places but holding together valiantly. They should have looked silly on him, but I found it so sexy—

  I'm going to break a branch on your ass, kid! Focus! Landry's voice came again.

  Malik took my hand—his claws sliding carefully around my fingers—as his mark spread strength through me. His eyes held knowledge of what I'd been feeling, but there was no teasing light in them; only stability and understanding.

  “Just try to keep focusing,” Malik said. “It will get easier. I feel it too; you're not alone.”

  His words were overlaid with the sound of snarls, roars, and screeching. The herd was coming into range. Malik kissed me gently and then strode forward with FEAR; everyone except for Jason—excuse me, we were in the field so it was Veritas—and me. We hung back with the soldiers. Veritas didn't have a combat ability, but he could guard me with a gun while I tried to work with the wavelengths of color around us.

  “Fire at close range only!” The soldier who had spoken with Kyrian reminded his team. “Don't hit the Supes!”

  These had to be soldiers from the base; men working with Alex. Most of the military didn't know about Supernaturals, but some of the elite teams had been given higher clearance. These men were probably SEAL Team Six or Delta Force. They all had a steady look about them that spoke of terrible things witnessed and done in the name of patriotism. Frankly, I was glad to have them with us.

  And then I was simply processing. I quickly took in the attacks of the other members of FEAR so I'd know how to best help them. Davorin turned on his Gargoyle talent and started alternatively bashing back beasts with his stone fists and turning them into stone to then smash them to bits. Tempest tunneled her tornado breaths at her targets and blew them into each other and into walls. Maestro sent spears of sound at the monsters and drove them to their knees; his killer voice making brains hemorrhage and ears bleed. Kyrian slashed out with sword and wings; killing with the cold precision that only an Arc possessed. And then there was Malik, AKA Nightshade; tearing and slicing his way through the herd with brutal efficiency and nothing more than his body as a weapon.

  I focused on the creatures' auras at first but that meant individual attacks, and I soon realized that I needed to be able to influence multiple creatures at once if I was going to make any kind of a difference at all. It ended up being a blessing that they'd formed a pack when they escaped; it kept us from having to split up. I was hopeful that we could finish this quickly. At the same time, I mourned for each creature who was put down. Put down; that was a horrible term. I hated it for animals and it was even worse for humans. We were killing them; it was in defense of the city, but it was still execution.

  I finally determined that my best bet would be to cast an illusion around the beasts and make them believe they were walled in. I could help more by keeping them contained than I could by calming them or putting them to sleep one by one. As soon as I laid the illusion, the human soldiers stared about them in surprise, and the creatures howled in rage. One of the beasts broke free and raced toward me as if it sensed that I was the one trapping it. Veritas shot it but another and then another headed our way. The soldiers were already firing rapidly at the creatures who made it past FEAR. A few of them tried to help us, but there was simply not enough of them.

  “Fuck; maybe we'd better—” Veritas never finished the sentence.

  Varian appeared before us; a long, thin sword in his hand. He moved with speed and graceful agility; killing in a way that made the blood beautiful. Veritas and I gaped at him as he cleared a swath before us and then moved forward steadily toward the others. Shots were still being fired around the perimeter but the main fight was in the center of the street where FEAR ruled.

  I watched my friends carefully, the steady pulsing of Malik's mark telling me that he was well. Bodies were piling up in the street and my throat was getting tight with tears. Not yet, kid. Hold on a little longer. Then I saw Tempest stumble, and a creature rose up behind her.

  “Tempest!” I shouted as I reached for the creature's aura, but I knew I wouldn't be in time to save her.

  My containment illusion sputtered with my lack of focus, but I couldn't look away. A blur hit the creature before it reached Tempest. Varian suddenly stood over the corpse with a bleeding blade before him. He looked up and met Tempest's grateful gaze, nodding once at her before heading back into the fray. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  But the worst was far from over. There were hundreds of creatures and now that my illusion was down, they all started racing toward us. I slashed out with waves of purple slumber; Malik's power bolstering mine. Beasts fell to the ground asleep; instantly crushed by the rest of the horde. It was hard to watch and even harder to do. Sweat broke out on my brow as I blasted out over and over. I started to tremble. The sound of guns became strident in my ears.

  A beast far more fearsome than any rushing toward me landed in front of Veritas and me. Malik. Sorry, it's hard to remember to call him Nightshade. Frankly, it seems a little silly. But there was nothing silly about Malik at that moment, no matter what I called him. He roared—his wings spreading out to shield us—and then rushed forward. I tried to push power back at him to help him, but it didn't seem that the mark worked that way. Instead, I went back to my aura attacks; this time focusing on shooting blasts of red straight at the creatures' hearts. Killing with color was difficult and took great finesse, but it felt better to slay quickly than leave my victims to be trampled. I know; I was a mess. Completely unprepared for battle. I hadn't thought about having to face such things. I was all over the place; an amateur running amok. If I made it through this, I was going to start training.

  Arc landed beside Nightshade, and the two of them drove the beasts back toward the center. Varian, Gargoyle, Maestro, and Tempest split around the monsters to circle back and form a line with Arc and Nightshade. Down the street from where the creatures had come, the other half of our corral had finally arrived and started doing their fair share of damage. Sandwiched like that, the creatures quickly succumbed to FEAR and the soldiers. I let go of the colors with a sigh as the last shambling beast crumpled to the ground. Then I looked across the carnage and wanted nothing more than to drop to my knees and sob.

  FEAR gathered around me but the soldiers stood their ground and held both lines as they watched the corpses warily.

  “Are we needed elsewhere?” Gargoyle called over to them.

  “No,” the man who had spoken to Arc before called back. “We're good. We can handle it from here.”

  Davorin nodded and we moved away from the corpses together. Varian followed us with curious glances at the soldiers. In particular; at their weapons. Malik shifted back to his normal form as he went to retrieve and don his clothing. He was staring at Varian; his jaw working
angrily. His mark ached on my neck enough to make me rub at it. I was beginning to recognize the feelings his mark gave me as more than just physical sensations. My body was finally equating them to the same impressions I got when I experienced certain emotions and was giving my mind words to describe them. For instance, right now, Malik was feeling angry and... jealous.

  I gaped at him and then over at Varian. He was jealous of Varian? Had I given him cause to be? I suppose running off with the Sidhe in the middle of the night had been cause alone. Then there was his physical appeal; Varian was undeniably attractive. But Malik was one of the most captivating, alluring men I'd ever seen. At that very moment, he was enthralling; I could barely look away.

  Despite being in humanoid form, Malik still looked fierce; splattered in blood, his hair wild, his eyes burning, and that beautiful tattoo adorning his sculpted chest like a war banner. I went over to him and took his hand. The ache in his mark turned to aroused heat. I turned so we could face Varian together.