"Get him!" Came the angry shout. An armor-clad man burst from a window, his black cape waving in the wind and tearing in the rain of shattered glass. He pointed his feet and pressed his legs together as he fell, dropping into a roll as he hit the ground. The man let to his feet mid-roll and ran.
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"Where is he?" A young, dark-skinned girl questioned as she paced the floor, pale makeup still half caked on her face.

"Calm down, Crystal," a red-skinned woman soothed, her fangs glinting in the weak candlelight, "You know Shadin can handle himself. So what if he's a little late?"

"It could mean he's been caught by the King."

"Crys," the fanged woman said, her biohazard necklace glowed as a scale-y armor grew across her body, stopping at will half way up her neck, "Stop talking. Sit down. And let me help you get that damn makeup off!"

The door opened and in walked the armored man, soaked to his core from the storm now raging outside. He removed his metal mask, shaking the rainwater from his bleached hair. He let a small hiss escape his lips as drops of semi-acidic water dripped into a red, bleeding cut beneath his left eye.

"Shadin!" Crystal cried, running up to hug her brother. "What happened?"

"I got my ass kicked. Why do they always go for the eyes?" Shadin sighed, taking off his tattered cape and throwing it and his helmet off to the side. "Calm down, Thorn. I killed the crackhead I went there for before I got my ass kicked."

Thorn chuckled as her armor scales melted back to skin, "At least you're alive, Shade."

Shadin stretched his sore muscles. He winced, reached an arm to his left side, and wrenched free a now bloody piece of glass.

"Oh, God! Shadin! Are you OK?" His sister panicked, rushing to his side to see the wound.

"Move it, whiney," a blue haired woman (who had come into the room at some point) shoved Crystal away from Shadin.

"Be nicer to my sister, Auria," the dark-skinned man chided, his pain more than obvious in his voice.

"She was in my way, pal," Auria said with a roll of her eyes. "Arm up, don't move, and tell me if this hurts." She prodded the bleeding flesh with the blunt end of a steril scalpel. He cried out in pain. "Well then." She pulled his shirt off him and threw it to the side. "Here, bite this-" she shoved a wooden plank into his mouth "-We can't afford for anyone to hear you screaming."

Without another word, she poured whiskey into the wound, and he let loose a muffled string of shouted curses and tears welling in his eyes. His jaw clamped down on the plank with such a force that it shattered into thin splinters.
"Dammit, Shadin!" Auria muttered as she wiped his wound with a cloth wet with whiskey before wrapping a thick cloth around him to hold a large wad of folded clothes to his (temporarily) clean wound. "Now I have to get those damn splinters out of your mouth."

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"The Shadowalker here again?" A tall pale man with icy hair and markings sketched across his body, blinding white wings and burning red eyes questioned as he watched the servants and slaves cleaning the carnage that was the halls. He cackled as he kicked a rebel-turned-slave to the ground, his wings flaring.

"Y-y-yes, S-s-sir, the Shadowalker k-killed-" the stuttering servant was silenced with a raised hand from the icy, cruel man.

"I don't care who he killed! I just want to know when I'll have a clear path to my room again."

"About an hour, Master Erix."

"Very well then. I'll stay here to supervise," Erix stated with a sick smirk as he kicked another rebel-turned-slave in her back, making her fall into a table and drop the shattered vase she was picking up.
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Crystal slipped into a dark alley. She let out a sad sigh. Shadin was injured far worse than he appeared at first glance. Upon closer examination, he had two cracked ribs, a sprained ankle, three broken fingers, and a twisted wrist. He was currently under a heavy sedative in the med-room and Crystal was worried. Without him, she didn't know what to do, and she knew the Rebellion would fall, and the King would win.

The thirteen-year-old sighed as she crossed her arms and put her head on them to cushion her forehead against the brick wall. Her forest green cloak fell across her lithe frame as she breathed, holding in the desire to weep over her wounded brother. It took her a full minute to remember that she didn't have on her ghostly pale makeup, and that she could hear the faint, almost elegant, sound of ice crystals gliding across one another in a candance of sound associated with the beating of wings. An Ice Demon's wings. She heard an even fainter sound, the sound of a particular Ice Demon's nicked crystalline feathers catching on one another. She turned just in time to see the tall demon swoop in and grab her arms.

"Mine now, Shadowalker!" Erix hissed as he beat his wings, his fingers digging into her flesh, and flying from the alley at Mach speed. Crystal opened her mouth to scream, but the pale demon changed how he was holding her, so her back was pressed against him, his arm wrapped around her waist, and pressed his hand across her mouth, fingers clutching her jaw, turning her scream of terror into one of pain. He hissed quietly in her ear, "No sounds, my little Shadowalker."

If she could have opened her mouth, she would have bitten his frigid hand clean off his wrist. The sick freak had some twisted obsession revolving around her and her brother. He desired having the two young Shadowalkers as his personal slaves, both confined to his quarters unless he said otherwise...the Shift Inhibitor Collars firmly around their necks.... HIS personal servers to do with as he pleased...to do anything he wanted..... anything...