Crucible of Fate

smeared with fresh blood.
    “Logan, he’s bleeding.”
    “I know he’s fucking bleeding,” he choked out, his voice as I had never heard it before, utterly fractured.
    “Anything?” I called over to the others.
    “There’s blood, my lord… so much blood.”
    I wasn’t ready to lose Yuri. Maybe in another fifty years. Possibly. But not yet, not now….
    Logan roared and the air suddenly reeked of sex.
    “What did you—” I went down on one knee, not because I was fighting and wanted my friend, but because of the energy it drained from me to have the heat and desire wash over me. His pheromones simply annihilated me.
    Koren went to his knees beside me. “Domin, Yuri’s—”
    “No,” I said, my hands in the dirt in front of me, head down, trying to draw air into my lungs when it was too thick and wet.
    All my men, even Kabore, were frozen. It was overwhelming, the power rolling off Logan Church. And it should have mattered, it was chemical, my body should have responded, but it didn’t. I was a semel, and so I was as strong as he was. Logan and I were different on the outside, but inside, where it counted, we were the same.
    “What the hell is that?” someone gasped.
    “Shit.” Koren caught his breath, and his hands, clutching at me, hurt. “Domin, watch out.”
    I glanced up in time to see Jin’s body contort, lift, and bow into a semicircle before snapping in half the other way.
    Scrambling to my feet, I dragged Koren back, then grabbed Kabore’s arm and yanked him after me. I didn’t want to be close.
    There was a fine mist of blood, then a hotter spray as Jin screamed, and wings—huge giant dragon wings—erupted from his back.
    My men were smart and fell to the ground, faces down in the dirt, so no one was disemboweled by the force of the appendages as they cut through the air.
    “Oh Logan,” I moaned, terrified for him.
    The creature that rose was not Jin. All I saw were the huge green eyes of a bird, almost a hawk’s head, something resembling a beak, reptilian black skin, and claws, but longer and hooked, like talons. I should have been horrified. Everyone else was except Logan, who was rising slowly and holding out his hand.
    There was something… familiar.
    “Come to me,” Logan said, and his voice was like honey.
    But I needed help, and I was afraid that if Jin succumbed, if he changed back, I wouldn’t get it.
    “Yuri!” I screamed.
    “No,” Logan cried out as the creature Jin was now disappeared from in front of him and reappeared, towering over me. I understood that he had actually just leaped or flown, but it was too fast to track with the naked eye; it seemed like magic.
    “Oh dear God,” Kabore moaned, and I could tell how truly frightened he was.
    The head of the beast moved just like a bird, almost robotic, and when he bumped my chin, I tilted my head back, baring my throat. If he wanted to kill me, I was dead.
    “Jesus, Domin,” Logan said under his breath, easing closer.
    I closed my eyes, trying not to shake as the beak slid slowly up the side of my neck.
    “Don’t move don’t move don’t move,” Koren chanted at a whisper, his breathing shallow as I felt his hand close around my bicep.
    He was trying to offer me his strength, but I was afraid that if he tugged on me, if he jostled or stirred me in any way, Jin would startle and kill me.
    “Domin, you stupid fuck,” Logan exhaled.
    The talons closed on my shoulders, and I felt the ends like nails pressing through my shirt but not breaking skin, closing but not tightening.
    “Domin,” Logan pleaded. “Please don’t send him into that cave after—”
    “Yuri,” I said, going for broke. I leaning my head forward and slid my palm flat up the curve of the beak. I quivered as he inhaled my scent but also Yuri’s, the sweat from his skin, the musk from him marking me, and whatever lingered from us being in bed together. I watched the nekhene and I understood where the term hawk-cat had come from, and maybe even, possibly, stories about Horus.
    The eye flicked everywhere but he saw me clearly, and when he tipped his head, like he was listening, I grabbed hold of his shoulder. He reacted and the talons closed instinctively.
    Razor sharp claws met through my body, through skin and muscle, and then bone. The cracking made me scream.
    “Domin!”
    A rush of air and then I was fifty feet off the ground, dangling from what was left of my collar bone and shoulder.
    “Jin!” Logan roared below us, and I