Page 75 of Moody as a Minotaur

I bit my tongue and prayed that everyone would calm the hell down. As soon as that thought flitted across my mind, one of the women shimmered.

Damn it.

“There it goes,” Tammy said. “Watch now.”

Like a domino effect, once the one student shifted, the two other shifters followed. Now, where there had been three students, there were a bear, a wolf, and… wait, where was the last student?

“A mouse? How is that possible?” Tammy shouted, outraged. “Catch her!”

“Oh God… I can’tnotdo anything,” Fin mumbled close to my ear. “But please don’t question what happens next, okay? Just get ready to move.”

Something creaked overhead. What the hell was that?

I didn’t want to look away from the fighting on the other side of the room. The bear had swatted the gun out of the masked asshole’s hand and things were getting chaotic over there. People were screaming. More guns were being drawn. My hand itched for my own gun, but would that just draw attention to us?

The creaking turned into groaning.

One of the many pipes crossing the ceiling above usstarted dripping. A thin crack snaked along the pipe. Uh oh. The crack grew longer and wider. The dripping increased.

More water shot from the crack. More screams. But this time, they were shouts of surprise as people ran to escape the water.

A boom blasted through the concrete room like a gunshot.

Whoosh.

Screw it. I kneeled and grabbed my gun from my ankle holster. It wasn’t until I had my gun in my hand that I realized it wasn’t a gunshot I’d heard. The pipe had exploded, and now water was pouring into the room.

The three supes across the room seized the distraction to take down their captors. I still didn’t know where the mouse shifter had gone. I prayed they weren’t about to be trampled or swept away in the rising water.

All around me, people were moving and running. Everything was happening so fast, I couldn’t keep track of it all. I was most concerned about the young supes, but they seemed to be holding their own.

The wolf growled and snapped his teeth at a hunter who tried to kick him. The bear roared and raised her paw at someone who tried to punch her snout. Her claws raked down her aggressor’s arm. Blood sprayed across the walls.

Then the fire mage lifted their hands. I don’t know what she did, but the lights flickered for a few seconds before everything went dark. Completely, utterly black. Son of a bitch.

Now what?

Sweat dripped into my eyes. Why did I even have them open? I could see exactly fuck all, which maybe wasn’t the worst thing in the world. If I couldn’t see anything, then the hunters couldn’t either. I held my gun pointing down, but I was ready to use it if I had to.

Jesus, though. I’d never shot anyone. Could I do that?

Fin pressed into my side. Levi took my elbow in his hand. And I knew in that moment that yes, for Levi and Fin, I could absolutely, one hundred percent shoot these assholes.

“Supes, come this way,” Levi spoke low. I doubted anyone could hear him over all the screams and hissing water. And if they did, would they trust a stranger?

People bumped into me. I lifted my gun to whack them with the butt, but they felt… um… hairier than the normal human. These were the shifters. I lowered my gun and adjusted my sweaty grip.

“How do we get out of here?” a man asked furtively. I guessed he must have been the wolf shifter. “I don’t want to get trapped in a dead end. And that fucking hood messed up my nose.”

“Are all the supes here?” I asked, thinking Levi might know. His senses were better than mine, but could anyone see anything in this much darkness?

But it wasn’t Levi who answered.

“Everyone’s here,” the same man answered. “Even Christa’s weird mundane boyfriend.”

“Fuck off, Lucas,” another guy muttered.

“Good. Follow me,” Levi said.