~*****~

"We can't just wait around for another murder."

The man's voice echoed in the vast, mostly-empty chamber, a dim blue glow highlighting the form of the younger male in front of him. The speaker's form remained in shadow, only his outstretched hand, fingers curled until they pointed at the boy, made itself known in the unearthly light.

The young man stood straight as a pole, arms at his sides and heels together. His eyes stared straight ahead, but his ears seemed almost to twitch as he listened to the dark form of his master.

"They were at the sight of that murder. We found their DNA all over the place. You can bet your life they had something to do with it." The looming figure leaned forward, hand dropping out of sight as his eyes glinted from a depthless face. "I believe you are ready. Will you do what needs to be done? Will you sacrifice your humanity to rid the earth of this new blight? This.... abomination?" He almost seemed to spit out the last word, voice echoing with the rasp of a snake over sandstone.

The young man stood straighter, eyes seeming almost to reflect the light in his eagerness. "I will," he said firmly.

"Good." The older man's shadow sat back, hands settling on the arms of the near-invisible chair that seemed almost like a throne. "Now go, and go quickly. Time is short. We must stop this plague before it spreads any further."

With a short, sharp salute, the young man about-faced and strode out of the room, boots clicking on the polished floor. As he passed by one of the sources of flickering light, something within it jerked spasmodically, sending ripples of green and blue throughout the area. The ripples landed on the now-empty chair of the older man, too late to highlight his dark features. The room was empty, save for those who would never leave.

~~~

~Leo~

"We can't just wait around for another murder."

Fiona slapped her hand down on the surface of their map table, the center of their base and the place they all came together to make their battle plans. Of which there had been very few so far.

I sat at the corner of the table, in my human form for once. Raven sat across from me, thumbs twiddling idly while she glanced back and forth between Fiona and Duncan, who were, as usual, butting heads about what we should do.

"I'm just saying," he replied hotly, "that we don't know what we're up against here. If we try to gather more information without knowing where to look, we could walk right into a trap, if we were't wasting our time altogether. I say we wait for something to happen again, and see what more we can discover."

"If we wait that long, it may be too late." Fiona overrode the end of his sentence, sounding frustrated. "We can't afford to make a mistake with this, and we can't afford to wait while they're going ahead with their plans. We HAVE to do something. Besides, waiting for someone to get killed when we might be able to prevent it does NOT sit well with me."

I shifted on my chair, wishing I could flick my tail. ~I think you're both right.~

Everyone turned to look at me, and I flinched slightly, but kept on. ~I don't think it's a good idea to wait, but we can't charge ahead either. I think that we should begin patrols, starting from the area where the murder was committed, and going outward from there. Two of us can do that together at a time, while the rest go about their usual duties. Also, we should look into the man that was killed, see what we can dig up about him. It might be important. I think that we should - what was that?!

In a flash, everyone was on their feet and running for the door, light blazing throughout the room as we Changed almost as one, colors threading together like the northern lights. I had no time to study the phenomenon as we rushed toward the loud THUNK that originated from the roof.

We blasted into the open, wings flaring, manes and tails streaming, scales flickering and feathers flashing in a blinding conflagration. I landed on all for paws with a thump, claws dug into the gravel to keep me from sliding. More small stones sprayed around me as the everyone else came to rest alongside, ranging from Fiona, who was roughly the size of a t-rex, to Raven, who landed unconcernedly on my head. I was too busy staring at the source of the disturbance to be annoyed.

Before us, stood a large, glimmering red dragon.

~~~

Hey guys, ye olde author here. 

I finally got around to putting Claw with the other two in this book - mostly because I know that you're all probably about as stir-crazy as I am, cooped up because of COVID-19. And there are a few scenes in this book that are close to my heart, and that, to me, stand out from the rest of my writing as some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy reading them just as much as I had enjoyed writing them. 

That being said, if you're wondering why the book stops here, it's because this is the point when I found that I couldn't continue with the story, because the plot from the other two books was so all-over-the-place and full of holes that I literally couldn't continue in the direction I wanted. 

If you want to see the story completed.... well, it may never be. I've been having trouble, looking down the road ahead and not seeing enough time to put into something that, to me, may not be worth it. I know I've been writing this for about ten years now, but since I began it....

I was going to say 'I've grown up'. You know what?

Fuck it.

I'll write it. Even if it takes the rest of my life, I won't let this go. So, even if my updates are sporadic and infrequent, you can count on them. Eventually, there will be another, and another, until I finish this. This is my dream, and I. Will. Not. Let. It. Die.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this early, rough draft of my trilogy. The finished one is going to be quite different from what you've just read, but, I hope, the heart and soul of my characters will still be there.

See you on the next page.

-Roxi