Andrew

His knees flexed as he landed, absorbing the impact with ease. Andrew stood up straight, his head the last part of him that came up. He allowed his cold blue eyes to be the final thing that the intruders into his embassy saw, the fury burning in them like blue-white flames of the hottest fire.

“Get out of my home,” he said coldly, his voice leaching all the heat from the room.

“You know,” Myles Vorre said as he tossed a small object up and down in one hand. “I like what you’ve done with the place. It’s very relaxing. One could get used to living here,” he finished, his green eyes lancing out like daggers as they met his glare.

The stare-down between the two went on and on, even as Gray and the other two guards came up on either side of Andrew, matched by half a dozen wolf shifters who had accompanied Myles.

“I’ll give you once last chance to leave, before I break your spine,” Andrew snarled angrily.

“Oh, that’s good,” Myles said. “But I’m not here to fight you. I come in peace, actually.”

Andrew snorted. “Somehow I doubt that.”

Myles fiddled with something on his shirt, but Andrew couldn’t tell what it was. Some sort of black object.

“I do, actually. Believe it or not. I have a message from—”

“I’m done with messages. Leave peacefully, before you leave in pieces.”

“You really need to lay off the threats, man! I’m not here to fight you, though I will defend myself if you attack.”

Andrew snorted and took a step forward.

“Andrew,” Karri called from above warningly, but he shook her off.

No, this was it. He should have dealt with Myles back in school, when the other shifter had been the class bully. He should have just broken his neck the first time they’d fought in school. Andrew had won handily, but in a moment of hope, he’d let his opponent survive. At the time he’d thought that perhaps Myles might calm down as he got older, smarten up. Basically become less of an ass.

The humiliating defeat had had the exact opposite effect, unfortunately, turning Myles into a sadistic creature who picked on all those around him. It was time someone stopped that.

“You might want to listen to her,” Myles said lightly.

“Fuck off. I said go.”

“You also might want to listen to me.” Once again he fiddled with the object on his shirt. What the hell was that thing?

“I’m through listening to you. You have until the count of five to leave.”

“You know,” Myles said, “I don’t believe throwing someone out of the Cadian embassy, let alone a Cadian citizen, is going to help you out.” He paused thoughtfully. “In fact, can you throw me out? Do you have that right?”

Andrew growled and stepped forward again. “Right or not, I’m going to do it, and I’m going to ensure that you break your neck when you land. Like I should have done fifty years ago.”

Myles just laughed lightly again. “Oh Andrew. You haven’t changed at all. Still such an anger-filled being.”

“Only where you’re concerned. You kidnapped Karri. You’re going to pay for that.”

The other gryphon shifter covered the object on his shirt as Andrew spoke, rubbing his hand back and forth until he was done.

“Listen, are you going to let me give my message or not?”

Andrew sneered. “I’m going to go with not.”

He had barely finished speaking before he launched himself forward, twitching muscles flinging him across the distance to the other shifter faster than a human could blink an eye. Myles was ready for the attack though, pivoting with Andrew’s leap and tossing him into one of the columns near the entrance. Marble cracked and fell to the floor as Andrew slid down it, dazed. He’d never remembered Myles being that good before.

Someone’s been training. Well, I won’t make that mistake again.

Closing slower this time, he took a moment to reach out to try and bash one of the wolf shifters as they went for his guards, but the wily man ducked below the attack and then danced out of range. Everyone was well aware that Andrew wasn’t going to shift focus from Myles to anyone else.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Myles said. “You could let me talk and—”

Andrew went on the attack, launching a flurry of blows that looked fancy, but were more designed to give him an idea of his opponent’s capabilities than do any actual damage. In fact, not a single one of them was intended to land. What he found out from them though, was that Myles had a tendency to drop his head to the right when avoiding a blow that could be avoided by ducking to either side.

He let fly with another right-left combination, setting Myles up for the attack he wanted. Myles bounced back out of range and then back in, just in time to see the right jab coming straight at him. With his momentum still carrying him back toward Andrew, the other gryphon could do nothing but duck to one side or the other. With there being no time to think, he was forced to rely on reflex alone, which carried his head down and to his right-hand side.

Which is exactly where Andrew’s true attack, a devastating left hook, caught him square in the jaw, the jab being merely a feint designed to get him to react. Myles swayed back and out of range, shaking his head to clear the stars he had to be seeing after such a blow.

Truth be told, Andrew was slightly shocked his opponent was still on his feet. He’d hit him hard. Hard enough it should have leveled him, at least momentarily. There was the sound of little objects making a sound like tink-tink-tink off the ground in front of Myles. It took Andrew a moment to realize they were his opponent’s teeth, knocked loose from the punch.

“You’re going to pay for that,” Myles spat, sending one bloody tooth in Andrew’s direction.

“Yah yah yah. Whatever you say. Let’s just get this over with, shall we?” he replied, tired of the constant banter. It served no purpose.

The two circled each other, looking for an opening or a mistake from their opponent. At one point, with Myles’s back to the street, Andrew’s eyes focused on some action he saw outside.

Figures.

The human film crew that had once been so interested in the building across the street was now pointed directly at the embassy, likely capturing everything they could about the shifter fight happening inside.

Around him the lobby was being destroyed as the three bear shifters fought twice their number of wolves. It was a fairly even fight at the moment, but all it would take was one bear shifter downing a single opponent to turn the tide. For now though the wolves seemed content merely to occupy their larger cousins, perhaps trying to tire them out, wear them down until Gray or one of his men made a mistake.

Unlikely, he thought. Andrew knew how hard Gray pushed his men. They were in peak physical condition. It would take a lot.

His mind was momentarily distracted by such thoughts, and Myles took advantage of it. The shifter charged at him wildly, abandoning all semblance of technique. His shoulder took Andrew in the stomach and the pair went down hard, crushing marble tiles beneath them. Kicking up a knee, he tried to dislodge the wild man, but it didn’t work. Myles slipped up around Andrew’s back, locking his arms under his neck before he could stop him.

Whoever has been training him is damn good. Andrew was no slouch at hand-to-hand combat, but he’d just been schooled. Badly. If he couldn’t find a way to get Myles off of his back, and soon, he was going to pass out.

But Andrew knew all sorts of tricks. The move Myles was pulling was one that would work great…in a ring with rules. Unfortunately, he’d also wrapped his legs around Andrew’s waist, to give himself better leverage. In the real world, that was a recipe for disaster. Forcing himself to hunch over and ignoring the black beginning to creep in at the edges of his vision, Andrew reached forward and grabbed one of Myles’s feet.

He smiled, and then wrenched it as hard as he could. There was a pained scream as bone, ligament, tendon, and probably even the Achilles muscles all broke and ripped at once. Air flooded Andrew’s lungs as Myles instinctively released his grip, and just like that, the fight was over. Without hesitating, he latched onto the other foot and repeated his move.

Then he rolled lithely to his feet, poised over Myles’s neck as the other shifter lay facedown on the floor howling in agony. Andrew dropped to his one knee, letting all of his weight descend into the point of his kneecap. It landed square on the back of his enemy’s neck. Bone snapped and the fight was over.

The wolves knew it too. They darted from the room faster than the bears could follow, leaving their fallen leader behind.

He stood up, looking down at the dead gryphon shifter as his shoulders heaved up and down, pulling in lungfuls of fresh air while he steadied himself, the adrenaline of battle still singing through his body.

“Is that it?” Gray asked, coming up to stand next to him. His one eye was rapidly swelling shut, and he cradled one arm gently.

“I have no idea,” Andrew answered as Karri came up next to him. “This just makes no sense. We’re missing something. Something big.”

He reached down and flipped Myles over, grabbing the little black object from where it had been attached to the other shifter’s belt. “What is this?”

The object was a slightly curved shape, thin like a stick. It had a solid black plastic knob on one end, and a more squishy foam on the other. Two wires trailed from it to a little black box clipped to the back of Myles’s pants.

“It’s a microphone,” Karri said, taking it from him. “But why…”

She looked up suddenly. Andrew followed her eyes across the street to the human film crew, who were now looking back at them nervously. Nearby, multiple police sirens began to scream, drawing steadily nearer.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Karri said.