The Failsafe Prophecies by Samantha Lucas Page B

harder to reach the
girl.
    Only a few more leaps of his muscles
and he’d reach her, but she was already falling limp. He roared as
he pushed himself to his breaking point to reach her, but the soul
was nearly completely gone. He felt the shiver of energy pass
through him, the shift in energy on the planet that happened
anytime a soul left or arrived.
     
    Hayden slipped through the
vortex and tried to force herself awake faster than was happening
naturally. She sensed the danger deep within herself and knew she
needed to be awake and aware fast .
    Her first view was of a park-like
space. Then she smelled the roahn-ami and saw Rigo’s transformation
as he charged at a woman on the far end of the lake from where she
stood. She watched as his human arms and legs became powerful
cat-like limbs, as his long blond hair became a long black mane. He
was beautiful in either form, and formidable. But as his lion, he
emitted power and magic his human-like form would never
have.
    She had maybe three seconds to make a
decision and to follow suit. She viewed the scene, saw terrified
families and a group of teens, all with their camera phones
catching the action. She prayed the containment crew was already on
their way. When she saw the second target, a young woman with long
black hair, wearing a traditional Asian-styled gown, Hayden began
to run, quickly morphing into her sleek puma, the pads of her feet
hitting the concrete, grabbing, and propelling her forward at a
great speed. It dulled her claws, but only marginally. She roared a
warning to the beast as she bore down on it.
    She prayed Rigo was safe
and her decision to save the other girl didn’t harm her friend and
ally. Theirs was a sacred duty, and it wasn’t to one another. There
was only one reason she would have been summoned here. These women
had to be from the Marrow, and all she knew for sure, was
she had to save
this one.
     
    Rigo lunged at the creature. His
claws, tipped with magic for just this purpose, ripped into the
vaporish flesh of the dark entity, tearing at it. Most would think
the deep red that appeared against the black was blood, but these
creatures didn’t bleed. They oozed toxins, a last defense against
anything that may attack it. A human who came in contact with the
substance would be dead in thirty seconds. There would be no way to
save them.
    He slashed again as the creature
wrapped its arm around the limp woman’s waist, but he only managed
to tear the soft cotton fabric of the woman’s simple shirt. She was
stunningly beautiful. Her blonde hair was so pale it was nearly
white and blended with her skin seamlessly. Her pale pink lips were
parted softly as she hung limp in the beast’s arms.
    This was the kind of beauty that
seemed supernatural. He wondered for a fragment if she were an
angel, but he knew better. Angels didn’t have souls for the
roahn-ami to take.
    He roared, lunging one last time,
making contact again, this time with a tendon and ankle as the
demon and the girl vanished into foul smelling vapor.
    He drew a deep breath and roared in
agony for failing her.
    As he turned, he saw Hayden shift into
her puma, chasing yet another of the dark winged ones across the
lake.
    He shook off the failure as the
realization dawned that another woman was in danger. He moved
through the gardens, across the lawn and the paved walkway with
grace and power, quickly catching up to Hayden’s puma. As they both
reached the creature, it was as if time slowed. A distortion of
some sort surrounded them. It was like being in a dream and not
being able to control your movements. He tried to lunge for the
creature, but it was as if something held on to his ankle and
yanked him back to the ground.
    He could see the woman’s soul being
stretched out of her body, sucked into the roahn-ami’s
canister.
    Hayden seemed as though she were
encased in glass. She roared in pain and frustration as the soul
slipped further away.
    This was hell unlike he’d ever