Don't Let Them Catch You

29? Redemption

"Well, that settles it." Hayden said with a lopsided grin.

He quickly removed his tattered shirt, and then his trousers. "It would be disobedient of me to tell my alpha I would keep you safe if I let you run off on me."

"Whatever." Aura's nostrils flared as he stripped. She turned to Tanya. "Can you go up there now?"

"I'm already on it." Tanya grinned, her eyes blazing wildfire.

Aura watched fascinated, as Tanya's limbs began to disappear, her oversized shirt and athletic shorts slinking away as she became spirit form. A spirit form made only of flames in the shape of a formidable bird.

Her giant wings needed only to push against the wind once and she was in the air, shooting above the trees.

Aura turned to Hayden, now a wolf only a few inches smaller than Skye. Up close, his pelt glittered white like it had collected constellations across globe. Intelligent brown eyes blinked at her, canine snout holding clothes in his teeth, presumably his and Tanya's.

His nose was covered in pink and dotted in black at the borders.

She would have taken the time to marvel at how different he looked to any wolf she'd ever seen before if her mood hadn't been sour.

Inclining towards the skies, Aura watched as Tanya waited for her lead. Then the bird shot forwards, like a fiery blur, in a direction north of the continent.

Skye stirred to life, her giant paws slapping the ground and the two shot through the trees to keep up with the bird, the smoke behind them shrinking in the distance.

The thrill of the run elicited a untamed howl from the wolf despite the clothes in his jaws.

The sound set goosebumps across her flesh and carried across the forest. Birds scattered from their nests in response, rabbits hid in their burrows and deer stayed far away as they ripped through the jungle like a blur of vengeful wraiths.

The echoes of a headache knock knocked against her temples, but Aura paid it no mind and forced herself to remain focused.

She would find him, and she would gut the creature that had played a very important role in ruining her life.

    
        Amos stirred with a heart beat in his skull that he couldn't ignore.

He didn't remember the last time his head hurt like this, nor was he prepared to welcome the feeling as a constant in his life.

Inhaling, he forced his body to relax.

Amos looked up.

The night sky blinked curiously down at him.

The angel moved to open his mouth to call for Aura, merely to discover resistance cutting into the sides of his lips.

He was gagged.

That's right, he thought, rolling his eyes. His memory returned to him, to Mammon and the witches, the sparking skies and screaming monsters that collapsed under the wrath of God, flashing in his mind like a reel.

He flexed his biceps, noticing restricted movement there too.

This time his entire head participated in the action of an eye roll.

How inconvenient.

Not only were his wrists bound, but the entire length of his arms were tied together behind his back. Wings too, he might as well be someone's roast chicken.