Silver threaded through the air just beyond Tara as she spun around. The sun had yet to sink below the buildings and it lit the edges of a black-clad woman standing just a foot behind her. Tara had never seen a person dressed in that much leather in her life, and it accented the woman's long white ponytail that hung to her hips in the afternoon light. The tight fabric hugged the woman from her ankles to her neck where moons gave away her mage status. An Aurion, just like Selena and that ghost in the corner.

Cold, white eyes flicked to Tara for only a moment, and a thin frown strained the lines of the woman's face before she looked to Ezra's back. Such callous dislike wasn't reassuring, but the mages were supposed to be the good guys, right? Tara was doubtful as she recognized the way the woman carried herself with dangerous pride. Tara'd had teachers like that growing up, the ones that smacked her with a ruler when she dozed off.

"Ezra!" the woman called ahead, the tone so commanding that Tara flinched. She hadn't referred to Ezra as a 'slave', so she likely wasn't an enemy, but man she didn't look friendly.

Ezra turned, and his teal eyes glittering with adoration so powerful that Tara's heart skipped. In a quick hop, he repositioned back next to the woman, and Selena preceded him by just inches to jump on the woman's leg.

"Momma!" Selena said, rubbing the tears off her face on the woman's pants. The gesture made Tara wonder if the woman normally scolded her daughter when she caught her crying. Selena's long golden hair matched her mother's in sheen and length, but Tara couldn't process how this brick wall of ice had ever had a kid with Ezra. This was the Luna, he'd spoken so fondly of and swore he loved.

"Luna," Ezra whispered before he bowed his head and curled his hands into his chest. "Forgive me. I was unable to protect the mage attendants at the entrance.

"Ezra, you aren't trained to fight nor sense intruders. It's not your fault." Luna said the words, dropping a hand to her daughter's hair, but they sounded mechanical rather than consoling. "I also highly doubt it was coincidence that Fiorello de Fleur and Dev Zehir happened upon the complex during the hour I left to fetch Meredith and Remus Shade."

"That you are right." A sickening laugh came from Fiorello behind them, and Tara stood and backed up behind Ezra and Luna. Matt was more reluctant, but she yanked him behind her and put a finger to her lips. "Removing the Fleurs from the complex was a nice touch, but we have spies who are more subtle in their loyalties. It is a shame you showed up, but Dev and I will have no issue dispensing with a single grand mage and her band of misfits."

A burst of magic similar to what she'd felt from vampires had Tara's knees knocking, and it took her a moment to realize it was beside her. Tara craned her neck up to a wall of muscle she had not noticed a moment ago, and she was pleasantly relieved to find the hostile emerald eyes lifted to Fiorello.

"Do not insult my mate, Fiorello de Fleur," he growled, baring his fangs in a snarl that only lifted Fiorello's smirk.

"Damn, Rush, everyone insults me. You have to learn to take it in stride," a woman said slipping between Tara and what was nearing a rabid animal. With slender hands, the woman pushed the wall of death, and he moved a foot before tilting his head in question. "You nearly stepped on the poor girl."

Of all of them, this woman looked the most normal, and she spoke as if Tara were sentient and not a backpack brought on a field trip that needed to be stored in a locker. Frizzy brown hair tickled her shoulders, pinned back around her ears, and she had on the same attire as the rest. Pitch, of course–these mages seemed to have no other color. The asymmetrical blouse she wore was weird–slashed diagonally from shoulder to hips to divide black from white, but she had a normal pair of jeans and a kind expression.

Unfortunately, drawing attention to Tara had her shrinking back as two hundred pounds of raw muscle focused on her. Matt was behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. It was to steady her, hide, or both, but she cringed from the contact despite her growing fear of the spiraling situation around them. It was still Matt.

"Humans?" A voice somehow more frigid than Luna's came from the vampire. The word was spat like they had all gotten fleas. Tara followed the sharp cut of the man's jaw and wondered if his hair was black or just a really dark brown. The light here against the alley building was poor enough without all these pitch clad soldiers.

"Tara Viewford is the woman Silvia Copse has been seeking for the children," Ezra explained in a hushed voice. The vampires could hear them, and Tara had yet to figure out what Silvia wanted, but Ezra had figured out she was a medium and had avoided using the word. That meant these shitheads across the street would likely demolish her if they knew what she was.

Great.

"I see," the man replied curtly before dropping his dead gaze to Tara. "Stay behind us, Tara Viewford. We won't have the luxury to protect you if you make yourself a nuisance."

"Rush!" The woman slapped his arm, and he lifted his lips into a half-hearted snarl in her direction. "Tact. You need to treat humans as well as you treat our allies."

"Why?" Dev spoke up and directed their attention to the complex. Tara wished immediately that she hadn't looked as the sick piece of garbage held a dead mage. "Humans are food, nothing more." As if he needed to prove it, Dev sank his fangs into the neck of the corpse.

Tara's stomach turned as he sucked the man dry like a juice pouch, the body shriveling as Dev took every ounce of liquid from it. Luna clenched her fists next to Tara, showing that she had more feeling than she put out as she refused to look away. That poor soul had known Luna, perhaps been a friend or family member.

Dev rubbed his lips with his sleeve and dropped his good arm to grip his thigh as his shoulder bubbled. Flesh sprouted up and spread, forming muscle and bone alike before winding down to his thin fingertips. It was devoid of skin, and Dev frowned as he flexed it.

"Not good as new, but enough to deal with you rebellious miscreants," Dev spat, standing up as Fiorello joined his side. "You should heed the council." Dev started seriously but then ended it with a cackle.

"I'll relish this opportunity to shut you up for good, Dev Zehir," Rush said, actually pushing Tara back a few steps with Matt. "Stay out of the way. Meredith may want me to be kind, but if it is between your safety and my mate's, it's not a choice."

"I get it. I'll stay in back. Do I look eager to die?" Tara growled back. Now was not the best time to grind in her inability to help even herself, let alone Selena. The day was doing that sufficiently all on its own.

The man's expression pinched, he opened his mouth, and then he turned to Meredith next to him. "That is rhetorical, right?"

Meredith chuckled mirthlessly before she took off with the man to stand ahead of Ezra and Luna. The situation was too dire for the woman to laugh, but it seemed like she got along with this Rush who referred to her as his mate. Was that what vampire mage couples looked like? Jesse certainly wasn't that way, but after Rush and Luna and Ezra, Tara was beginning to think Jesse had hidden much of their normal demeanor behind a veil.

"Meredith and I will handle, Dev Zehir," Rush said to their group as he straightened his shoulders and flexed his claws. Jesse also hadn't had those when he'd touched her with his soft fingers. "His poisons leach off of light magic and can only be resisted by dark. Meredith is not adept, but she can manage to stave off most of the lethality. Ezra you will have to help Luna with Fiorello."

"Me?" Ezra said quietly, his eyes dipping toward the ground. "I am not trained in combat, and someone should watch Selena." Ezra's weak protest yielded him nothing but a grimace of Rush's lips that revealed his fangs in a clear show of disgust.

Rush was repulsed by Ezra's hesitance to leave his daughter alone and fight? At the same time, Tara was confused why Ezra thought he wasn't capable. The guy had just warped an entire complex like it was made of taffy and near turned a guy inside out, but he wasn't trained in combat? What did vampires do when they were trained?

"You're a vampire, aren't you?" Rush asked. It seemed like a statement meant to illicit pride, but Ezra's lips crinkled into a frown. "Dev will take all Meredith and I have and more, and Luna will not be able to handle Fiorello without you. If he can slip past her, he can do just as much to swipe your daughter. The best form of defense if offense here. If Fiorello fights you both one by one, he will win. Together, you are stronger, and Luna is experienced enough for the both of you." The words, though meant to reassure from another person, sounded more like Rush was off put by Luna's skill.

Since this alliance was recent, it stood to reason that even the mages of the alliance had fought the vampires at some point. They were working together now, but it was easy to see the tenuous treaty they had when Tara watched this one.

"Come, Ezra." Luna offered her hand in a much kinder gesture than the current party had shown thus far. "Selena knows to stay back and how to defend herself if it becomes absolutely necessary. We can work together and keep her from that. Follow my lead."

"Very well. I will do what I can," Ezra knelt for just a moment and kissed Selena on the head. The girl nodded and slid back to stand by Tara as Ezra joined Luna and faced the men ahead.

It was a standoff from hell, and Tara was sure she'd be dead today if this tiny half vampire girl thought her any form of capable. The vampires in the Alliance seemed to think they'd need two of them to handle one of the men ahead, and if they were councilman as Tanya had said, Tara didn't know if their side could win.

Good guys were supposed to win right? Mostly in books and television, but it always followed some horrible loss, and Tara hoped she wasn't one of those ignorant bystanders that was murdered and forgotten in seconds. It felt more and more that way as the slim wall that protected Selena and her took off to fight.

If Tara was being honest, it was more like they were sucking the air out of the plaza around her. Where the vampires collided, that heavy feeling of dark magic followed, and it wasn't any better when Luna swept her hand along the ground and lifted stars to explode in Fiorello's face. The bursts of energy had Tara stepping back before she bumped into Matt where he stood just as uselessly. It didn't take Matt long to let her elbow go and slip to the ground against a wall. It was likely because his knees were as functional as hers, but being a smaller target never hurt.

For some reason, Tara didn't join him and instead looked ahead as if she could do something. It was a farfetched idea at best, but it was demeaning to curl up on the ground like an invalid when a girl of no more than three years at best stood watching, clutching her hands in front of her as her parents fought for her safety. In the only gesture Tara could manage, she walked to the girl's side and dropped her hand to her shoulder.

Selena lifted her teal eyes up, and tears glinted in the sun, but she kept them from falling. That was the best Selena could do, keep her cool for her parents and be ready if she had to run. Tara couldn't run, but perhaps she could do something useful. Looking ahead, she watched the vampires and mages dance within unbelievable magic.

Everywhere Dev moved, black lines of crystalline magic crawled up from the ground, hissing away with an aerosol that Rush and Meredith avoided like the plague. It was likely poison, as they had said, and when Tara looked toward Fiorello, it was no better. The man so much as lifted his hand and spells and concrete alike disappeared like ashes dusted off his shoulder. The only thing that kept his magic from overtaking them was Luna's fast spells that fought with Fiorello's power as best she could. When Fiorello slipped past Luna, Ezra warped the ground around them to block his path and force the man to use his magic on inanimate objects to get through to them. The problem there was that Ezra would run out of street and sidewalk soon enough and he'd be in the sewers unless he started using people's houses nearby.

It was about then that Tara started seeing double.

Perhaps it was the stress.

Please don't let her pass out like a wimp.

Word Count: 2316