Page 62 of Hybrid Heroics

“Yeah,” Sterling prompted, nodding her head. “I know him.”

“I heard someone mention York’s name, which led to your name, and that led to this little old dryad lady talking about Talia and Latharian.”

“Spit it out, dude,” Novak growled.

He glared at the vampire, but his attention whipped back to Sterling and York. “I think they’re coming this way, but I don’t know why.”

“We know why,” York calmly confessed. “Sloane is here.”

“Sloane is who?” Flint inquired, glancing around at our group.

“My mate,” the druid answered, then swung his arm out. “Our mate.”

His brows nearly hit his hairline. “All of you?”

“Not those two,” Sterling informed him, motioning to Murphy and Thatcher.

An unreadable expression flashed across her face, and Flint pursed his lips as if curious. Then he shook his head.

“Later, Ling. We need to get your parents out of here.”

“They’ll be fine,” York assured him. “We can handle a few cursed supes…”

“A few?” He snorted. “Try half the fucking town.”

“You’re exaggerating,” the druid speculated.

Flint frowned. “Maybe a little. But they were everywhere, York. There must have been more than four or five dozen of them.”

I shrugged. “We’ll take our chances.”

Briggs whistled three times, calling the hounds to us. The butterflies were just specks flapping our way… And then the boys hit the ground, giant paws thundering toward us as they shook our their muscles.

York turned to his cousin. “Tell Talia and Latharian to stay with Sloane. The hounds will be at her side, so they’ll be protected. If you don’t want to fight, then I need you to go with them, too.”

“So, we’re doing this?” Murphy asked.

“Scared of battle, Warlock?” Thatcher jeered.

“Fuck no.” He grinned. “Sloane is asleep. That means we get to actually fight.”

The alicorn chuckled, but I nodded to Murphy in agreement.

It had been a long time since we didn’t have her wiping the board clean. And I was ready to kill—

“We can’t kill anyone,” Novak mentioned, cutting his eyes at me.

“Dammit,” I grumbled.

“They’re cursed,” he rationalized. “That doesn’t mean they’re on Alric’s side. We knock them out.”

Flint rubbed his jaw, smirking at the vampire. “Have you ever knocked out an orc?”

“Nope,” Novak admitted, bumping his shoulder against mine. “Doesn’t mean we can’t get the job done, though.”

“Good luck,” was all Flint had to say.

Wednesday, June 24th