"You're supposed to be dead," Sam growled, stepping towards me angrily.

"I told you she wasn't that easy to kill. You're too overconfident," Caesar said casually, sizing up everyone before resting his gaze on me.

I recognized where we were. It was one of the arenas they used for skill assessments. I walked past it on the way to my own skill assessment. It couldn't be a surprise that they chose an arena of all places to kidnap Tom. They were expecting a battle.

"I'm overconfident?" Sam asked, incredulously.

"We'll finish this conversation later. Now's not the time," Caesar said, rising up from his seat, dismissing Sam's remark.

After a long distasteful look, Sam turned to face us.

"So who wants to die first?"

"I could ask you the same question," Zion replied, his voice dripping with ice.

"Cocky. Seems you've met your match," Caesar remarked.

"Caesar, if you call me cocky one mo-"

"Are you done bickering? I'm getting bored," I interrupted, faking a yawn.

"We should've killed that bitch when we got the chance," Sam said, forgetting his squabble with Caesar to direct his annoyance at me.

"I'd like to see you try," Star piped up, releasing her wings as she held her gaze with Sam.

"This shouldn't take too long. Let's get started guys," Joel said, confidently.

Caesar and Sam looked at each other in pure astonishment, failing to believe that we weren't trembling in fear. After waiting for an attack that never came, I decided to make the first move.

Charging forward, I flitted towards Sam, landing a hard punch square to his jaw. Surprised, he didn't react in time and went flying back, scrambling up off the ground before roaring so loud the ground beneath us shook. He began to shift as his limbs became replaced by his werewolf counterparts. I looked behind me, seeing Zion start to shift behind me too as he growled at me. Understanding, I gave him a nod, letting him know Sam was all his before searching for Caesar.

Star was circling him from above as Joel were advancing towards him. Caesar was planted on the ground, still an unmoving as a fire grew in his eyes. I knew that look. I'd seen it in dragons before. He was about to release a massive burst of fire and Joel, no doubt was going to be burnt by a crisp judging from how close he was approaching him.

"JOEL, RUN!" I warned, reaching inside of me and guiding my magic to collect in my hand as I could feel the fire start to emerge from my finger tips. I flitted as quickly as I could to Joel, pushing him out of the way as hard as I could as I could see the wave of fire start rushing towards me. I released my magic in a burst of fire back at his own, stopping it for a brief second. That brief second was what I needed to plant distance between us as I flew up darting as quick as I could away before his fire consumed mine. I felt an arm grab my leg and I looked down to find Caesar, smiling up at me as he opened his mouth again. I had forgotten dragons have wings. His were smaller than my own, but thicker. They were fat and short, blue with hints of grey. I might've even said they were cool if they weren't attached to him.

Knowing there was no way I'd dodge his frontal attack this close to him, I reached out to the Earth. Suddenly, I felt his grip on my foot loosen as Star crashed into him causing him to release my foot and go tumbling through the air. He caught himself, flying back towards me at an alarming speed. I reached out my hands towards him, entreating the Earth to do anything to help me as he opened his mouth, releasing another wave of fire that was fast approaching.

I saw the fire start to slow down, allowing my enough time to get away for now. I looked down to see Sam and Zion wrestling one another on the ground, both covered in scratches from rolling on the ground and bite marks from sinking their talons into one another. I shivered, seeing Zion with blood tarnishing his beautiful fur. Sam, however, seemed to be covered with more blood. It likely had to do with Jeremy, who was hovering over them both as he  was also attacking Sam from above. Satisfied that they were alright, I turned back and located Caesar who was once again advancing but this time towards Star. I felt a whoosh as Joel approached me from the side, turning my face towards him.

"I think I know how we can beat him."

"What do we do?"

"He keeps attacking us with the fire. He's impossible to land a hit on until his mouth is open. That's when he's vulnerable. I think he has to focus on his magic when he shoots the fire. You should try to get him to breathe fire at you and as soon as he opens his mouth, me and Star can attack him."

Smiling, I said, "you're a genius Joel."

"I've been told," he said, smirking.

I darted quickly towards Star, calling out, "Caesar, you don't want to do that."

Curious, he turned around, halting from releasing another wave of fire. That was all I needed before I flitted right up to him, using my wing to whack him hard. Noticing the attack too soon, he flew backwards but not before grabbing my wing and twisting it backwards, breaking several bones in the process. I screamed, reaching for the broken part of my wing as sweat beaded my forehead.

"Shit, Saron you okay?" Star yelled, flying towards me.

"I'm fine. Let's finish this," I said, through gritted teeth.

I flew forward, towards Caesar as I shifted more weight on my other wig as my injured one healed slowly. Expecting me to make a careless attack and not expecting me to have a plan he grinned happily. He waited patiently until I was barely 5 feet from him before opening up his mouth to release more fire. This time however, he wasn't able to get more a small flame out before Joel and Star came at him from both sides, cornering him as they landed successive blows.

I tapped into my witch powers releasing small amounts of magic into the air as I felt the jolt of the Earth obliging and jolting me back. I waved my hand, pushing the air from his surrounding areas as he choked. The combination of his suffocation along with Joel and Star's attacks was no longer enough for him to maintain his position in the air. He went crashing through the air, plummeting to the ground. By the time he hit the ground, he was unconscious. Whether it was from his lack of oxygen or the fall I'm not sure and honestly I didn't care. Another one of the Five was down. Now we had one more left.

"We did it!" Star cheered, excitedly. Joel was grinning from ear to ear as well as they made their way down to meet me.

I looked over to see Sam holding his own against Zion and Jeremy, despite being covered in blood at this point . I guess Sam had a bite to match his bark.

"What are we gonna do with him now?" Joel asked, landing beside me.

Crexus, the other two are here.

As long as all four of them were away and unable to attack I could finally focus on Liam and just Liam. All five of them at once was certainly a battle I wasn't winning.

"Crexus can take them to wherever he took the other two."

"Let's help Zion and Jer," Star said, flying back up and over to them, us on her heel.

"How's it going?" Joel asked Jeremy who was hovered above and covered in scratches.

"I don't know. He's strong."

"Definitely not strong enough for all four of us."

Agreeing with me, Star nodded before yelling, "let's take him down!"

We all advanced towards Sam, hitting him from all angles. He roared at us as he spun, trying to attack us all at once. With a crash, I looked over to see Crexus had arrived and was quickly advancing.

Catch it

I saw something flying through the air, catching it in my hands before realizing what it was. It was a syringe, likely the same one he used earlier on the other two. I flitted down, sinking it into Sam's back quickly before emptying it out. His advances weakened before he collapsed, completely still. He began to shrink as his shape reverted back to his human form.

Crexus walked over, slinging him over his shoulder with Caesar on the other before disappearing again, without a word. If all business no pleasure was a person, it was Crexus.

"Tom!" Joel yelled, running over to his body with Star and Jer on his heel.

I heard a grunt come from behind me, finding Zion on the ground clutching his side that was oozing with blood. He forced a smile as he saw my look of concern as he forced himself up and walked towards me. I rushed towards him immediately, grabbing him.

"Shit, Zion are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's nothing."

"Hold still," I said as I placed my hand carefully over his wound and focused my energies on him. It was a cut about 3 inches deep likely from Sam's talon but it wasn't too bad. I didn't feel nearly as drained as I did healing Crexus. The blood slowly began to lessen as the tears mended and before long he was good as new.

"Thank you," he said, wrapping his arms around my waist before planting a kiss on my lips. It was probably meant to be a quick, thank you kiss but once his lips crashed on mine I couldn't pull away. I deepened the kiss, pulling him closer as I gripped the back of his neck. I let my fangs meet his tongue as I could feel the mutual fireworks exploding within us as our mate bond pulsed with our racing heartbeats. It wasn't until Jeremy spoke that I remembered where we were and what just transpired.

"Come on! Zi, Sar this is romantic to you guys?"

I broke away from the kiss, rolling my eyes before laughing. With a life like mine, you had to take advantages of the little moments where you could find them.

"How's Tom?" Zion asked with a hint of concern in his voice, causing me to raise an eyebrow at him which he pretended he didn't notice.

"Still unconscious. They drugged him too. We'll take him to the Infirmary."

"NO!" Zion and I yelled in unison, causing everyone to look at us like we were crazy.

"One of the nurses tried to poison me when I was there. We can't trust them. They might be under their control."

"Then what are we going to do?" Star asked, looking helpless.

"If they drugged him with the same thing they drugged me, all he needs is food."

"Try to wake him up. If that doesn't work, we'll find another way," Zion added.

"Alright," Jeremy said, slapping Tom hard across the face.

"What the hell Tom?" Star yelled, grabbing his hand before he did it again.

"You said wake him up," he said, shrugging.

"There are better ways to wake someone up," I said, shaking my head at him.

"Did..you just...slap me?" Tom said groggily as his eyes fluttered open.

"Finally," Joel breathed out, patting him on the chest lightly.

"Anyone have food?" Star asked.

"I have a Twix bar," Jeremy offered, pulling a crumbled bar of his pocket. I considered asking him how long it'd been there but decided against it. Some things are better if you don't know.

He wrapped it open, pushing it at Tom's face who looked at him like he was deranged.

"Just eat it," Jeremy insisted, pushing it towards him.

Tom took it from his hand, taking a bite before quickly finishing the rest. He then stood to his feet, dusting himself off.

"Yay!!!!" Star cheered, tackling him in a hug.

"What happened?"

"You got kidnapped and we rescued you," Jeremy said proudly.

"You?" He asked, looking at Jeremy in disbelief.

"Hard to believe, right?" Joel added, smirking at Jeremy.

"You know what? Next time, we're not coming after you. I'll just let your ass rot. You too," Jeremy replied, gesturing to Joel.

We all burst out laughing as we walked out.

"So what now?" Tom asked.

"We wait for Liam to show up," Star replied, surprisingly casual. She was quickly becoming unfazed by the prospect of danger.

"I'm so tired of waiting," Jeremy complained.

"Tell me about it," I agreed.

"Where do tho think they're keeping them?" Zion asked, looking off distractedly.

"Hopefully somewhere where they won't attack again. I've escaped them twice now but I don't think I'll be so lucky the third time."

"Of course you will! You're unkillable remember?"

"Jeremy, shut up," Star said, laughing.

Zion walked back with us, leaving once we got to the door as usual. We made our way inside before separating off into our sections. I helped Star with a few section duties before we went to sleep. I slept like a baby that night. Maybe it was because my subconscious knew what was coming, even if I didn't.