“Ready yourselves,” Jacob called back, taking his weapon with both hands, turning his body in a sideway position.

“I can’t see anything,” Tammy said as she and I stood straighter.

No more had the words left her lips, when a body dropped down in between Derek and the three of us that were grouped together. He looked down and out of nowhere took a blade across his upper back. He yelled out and dropped to his knees as Jacob brought his blade up just in time to stop the assassin, who was dressed so that he blended perfectly with our surroundings, from taking Derek’s head off at the shoulders. Another black figure went over the top of our heads so fast that I would have missed it if not for the small pieces of rubble falling from the bottom of his feet. Fala sliced at open air, missing the dark figure as the assassin’s feet connected with his snout, knocking him backwards and into the decayed wood of a building going right into the unknown beyond. Tammy instinctively put her arm around me and pulled me behind her. I wrapped my free arm around her as we looked for the figure to strike again.

Jacob and the first masked assassin swung blade to blade, matching each other’s moves as if they had studied side by side. Cates pushed Garvin aside and dove, knocking Tammy and me to the ground as we heard metal hit and saw sparks fly. Cates’ arm never stopped, as he pulled back, feeling the tip of his blade make contact along with a distinct grunt confirming it. Cates rolled and was on his feet holding his blade out waiting for his enemy to advance, with Tammy and I, being pushed back toward the rotting wall where Fala had disappeared. Garvin was dragging Derek, who was trying to get to his feet, in our direction, as Jacob and the other assassin kicked and leapt into the air, swinging their blades like they were attached to some kind of invisible strings. The assassin kicked out hitting Jacob in the upper chest knocking him back several feet, then ran at him. Jacob slid on both feet never falling to the ground, stopping with a loud fighting yell, kicking his foot straight up as the assassin was bringing his blade down. The assassin’s head went back as his body arched in midair, blood flying from his mouth as the mask tore from his face, leaving him with only a hood to hide the pale glow of his bloodbreeder flesh.

Jacob took in a deep breath and stormed on heavy feet, yanking the assassin up by the back of his black, fitted suit. He yelled out and raised his blade, coming down, only to have it blocked with a counter blade and taking a fist on the side of his face. Jacob stumbled back, angrily spitting blood on the ground, looking sideways at his query and jumped up into the air at the same time the assassin did. In unison the blades hit; sparks showered down as their feet landed hard and both stood face to face with their arms above their head, locked hand and blade staring into familiar eyes. Jacob, had he not known better, would have sworn he was looking back at Jessica, and the one looking at him held the same shock as he looked back at Jacob. He kicked Jacob in the stomach, knocking him backwards, then ran to his fallen companion and pulled him to his feet. The assassin turned back and watched Jacob as he got to his feet, staring in disbelief, then disappeared into the alley without as much as a sound.

“Why didn’t you kill him when you had the chance?” Cates asked, turning to Jacob to see if he had been wounded.

“I don’t know, Cates. There was something about him…how is Derek, and Fala?”

“I’m fine, but it hurts like hell,” Derek replied with Tammy probing his back.

“The slice is a long one, but it’s not deep,” she said, dabbing at the wound with a piece of her shirt.

Noise came from the partially standing building behind us and we all jumped, ready for another attack. Two of the youths that we had seen in the alley held Fala under his fur covered arms, helping him through the debris covered wall of the place that was once someone’s home. He stepped through the hole his body had made, then turned and took the hand of one of the youths, helping him out next. We watched until they were out, with no one saying anything. The sheer shock of seeing them with Fala left everyone…especially me…speechless. “They killed our brothers,” one said. “I’m Luther and this is my brother, Lane. We can show you the way through the forbidden zone. We know who you are.”

“Who are we, Luther?” I asked, stepping up, sliding my blade back in its sheath.

“You are the ones. You come to stop them from killing our people, it is being told all over the city,” he replied, blinking bright green eyes at me.

“Thank you for helping our friend, and you're right about us, we do come here hoping to stop what’s going on. I’m sorry about your brothers.”

“We are all sorry about your loss,” Jacob added, reaching out with his hand. “It would be an honor to have you lead our way to the church called St Michael’s.”

“It’s not far from here, but we will have to move fast past the graveyard that takes most of the center of the forbidden zone. Fleshers roam looking for anything to fill their stomachs,” Luther said, taking off his shirt, with his brother doing the same. “We move faster in our natural form, just keep up.” They both removed their pants, just as Fala always had without any worries of Tammy and me being present.

Chapter Eighteen

I thought they would stand on two legs like Fala, but it was nothing like the beast that watched our backs. Both had jet-black hair that hung in strands down their back and with a trick of the eyes they stood on all fours covered in solid black fur. The young boys changed like liquid running into solid. They looked at us with emerald green eyes while growling out, then lowered to a soft purr, showing shiny white teeth that were much like the shape of their human form, only much longer. Their backs reached up to my hip and I couldn’t help but to run my hand over Luther’s back as he walked beside me; feeling to see if he was as soft as he looked, and he was. His cat head turned up and looked at me before he padded off to catch up with his brother.

Both brothers crept low to the ground once we reached the crumbled walls that once protected the graveyard that was twice the size of the one behind Martin’s home. We all did our best to watch our footing and hide in the shadows of the rubble of the surrounding buildings and what little wall was left. I wasn’t worried about the fleshers, until I saw Fala sniffing the air and turned to see the two cats doing the same thing. Only they were holding their mouths open with their skin pulled back from the teeth. At this point I couldn’t tell one brother from the other, but both were jumping at the least bit of sound or movement, lowering their bodies as close to the ground as they could, while still moving forward. I had seen rats the size of small dogs throughout the ruins, but hadn’t seen one since we got close to the graveyard; which made me even more nervous about running into what we were once thought of by Alex and Bernard.

“There, by the round tomb,” Garvin pointed in a low whisper.

Three thin beings moved about, then, two more stepped out from the other side of the tomb. We froze at Jacob’s hand going up high enough for us to see it. He pointed across what used to be the street that was now filled with broken stones and rotted wood, to an open door that the two cats silently went into. Garvin and Derek made their way around Cates and Jacob, moving as quickly and quietly as they could. Once they were inside the building, Tammy and I took our turn. Tammy’s foot went through a piece of wood and we froze like statues; her closing her eyes and me daring to glance back at the things in the graveyard.

Jacob yelled, “Run!”

Fala stood; throwing back his head, echoing his presence throughout the forbidden zone. The creatures, that I was hoping were not the ones who lived off the flesh of others, paused at Fala’s enormous size then started moving over the desecrated headstones with a speed that I certainly would not have expected from creatures that looked like their limbs would detach at any moment.