Melanie along with Joona rushed up the stairs and found Lynx cornering Maalceus and Kelly who each had a packed suitcase in their hands.

"Where are the two of you going?" Melanie snarled, her teeth growing into small fangs.

Lynx took notice of her shift and the look of her body. Her transition was growing closer.

"These two thought that the Daemon were at the gates and had been prepared to flee." Lynx jabbed a furry finger at Maalceus.

"We told you not to." Melanie replied, both angry and saddened. "We are going to work this out together."

"There is no working this out." Maalceus snapped angrily.

"Watch your tone!" Lynx snapped just as angrily.

Maalceus drew in a deep breath but Kelly spoke up.

"We don't want to put everyone in danger." Kelly said, voice hoarse from holding back tears.

"The kingdom is already in danger. Whatever just attacked the city is-"

"Being handled by my brother. There is little that Lucian can't handle. The Daemon though are too much." Maalceus cut in.

"That is your King. I remind you!" Lynx snapped once more. "You owe him your life and-"

Melanie let out a blood curdling scream of pain that sent her to her knees. All eyes and heads swiftly moved to her. Kelly was the first to inspect her best friend. A look of pure worry and concern on her dark skinned face. Melanie heard nothing for a long moment. Only feeling the sharp aches and pains of her chest as though she had just been through and through.

Her heart still beat and her breathing came out slow and heavy. The pain ached for several long heart beats before the sensation went cold. 'Oh god! What happened?' She asked silently. She reached up and touched the tips of her fingers to the collar at her neck. Melanie reached into the bond that connected herself with her master.

Her warmth and loving embrace moved through the bond, hoping...pleading to feel his dominant embrace in return. What she got was only cold and empty void. She stared up at the others, indigo blue eyes thick with tears.

"My lady? What happened?" Lynx asked.

Melanie's lips quivered and shook. Words came rough and difficult. Her mouth refused to speak the words that pounded against her brain.

"M-m-my...M-m-"

"My what?" Kelly asked. "Sweetie tell me. Please."

"M-m-m-m...My ma-ma-master." She sobbed.

"What about him?" Maalceus asked, urgency in his voice as he exchanged worried looks with Kelly who looked as confused and worried as he did.

Melanie reached into the bond and felt for Lucian. Again, she received only the cold and empty embrace of death. Her tears came thick and heavy in a way that she had never experienced before.

"My master is dead!" She sobbed, her body shook and her sobs turned to snarls.

"No. Th-that can't be true." Maalceus looked from Kelly to Lynx who appeared angry and disturbed.

He needed someone to dispute what Melanie had said. But there was no one. Only the four of them.

"No! I refuse it!" She snarled.

Kelly moved away from her best friend who shook and quivered. Her pearlescent pale skin brightened. From the poures of her skin sprouted bright pearlescent scales as sharp as spears. Her body began to grow longer and larger. Without warning, she jumped up and launched herself down the stairs. Her legs and arms propelled her forward at the stride of a wolf.

Melanie hardly felt the pain of her first transition as she sprinted out the doors on all fours. The feel of her vertebrae only pushed her faster as her tail sprang out from her back. Melanie's body grew from five feet to seven feet tall. Her body expanded as two large white wings sprang out. From her head grew two pairs of white horns.

The first pair grew out behind her ears curling out and then back around to the side. The second pair grew out from her forehead, over her scalp and then straight out. The grass where her skin touched froze over into thick ice freezing the grassy leaves into brittle icicles. The air around her body misted as the temperature plummeted into the negatives.

Every breath she exhaled came out as frozen plumes of frost and mists. From seven feet she grew to ten feet then twenty. Her large draconic form turned all it touched into frozen crystal. Melanie's dragon form stood at seventy feet long and fifteen feet tall. A large pearlescent frost dragon, as beautiful as it was dangerous. Her breath brought instant paralysis and frost bite. Her touch would freeze even the hottest of flames. She was winter incarnate. Her screaming roar echoed across the city as she took off into sky.

*****

Brandi and the driver ran from the wagon which had more gashes in it than spokes of the geared wheels. Leo and Heather dropped from the top and double checked their surroundings.

"Are you well ma'am?" Leo asked, inspecting Brandi quickly. Satisfied that she was unharmed, he looked at Heather who checked the road leading up to the palace. None followed them but she knew it wouldn't be long.

"We must retreat to the palace and find-"

Heather's voice was drowned out by the ear splitting scream of any icy roar. A gust of wintery cold air struck them, momentarily paralyzing them where they stood. Brandi was the first to notice the large shadow that drifted overhead. A second breeze of icy wind followed. The tops of the trees frosted over and the flowers that had been planted along the road wilted.

'Is that...Mel?' Brandi wondered.

Before she could ask anything further, the shouts of Kelly, Lynx and Maalceus took her attention as they ran out from the palace doors and into the courtyard.

*****

General Kuraya dropped the fiftieth body to the stone. Fifteen Katsi, ten humans, five Roomaja, ten elves, five faeries and five children. The large hulking Vikara had returned his body to the land of the living. His dark green skin was fresh and glistening with life.

The Vikara warriors around him stormed the streets, breaking down doors and shattering windows. There was no house or shop that was safe from the dirty grasp of the Vikara.

"Warriors! Leave none alive! Feast! Makan!" He shouted. "Makan!" He raised his sword up raising the blood lust and war hungry thirsts of his army.

*****

"This is your time!" General Wyatt roared as he assembled his three hundred palace guards.

"You are the next line of defense! Fight for your King! Fight for your people!" General Wyatt raised his broad curved sword up to the sky.

The palace warriors unsheathed their swords in reply and followed their general down the King's road towards the city. Smoke and fires burned up above the buildings from the palace. Each burning building lit a fire in the heart of a warrior.

*****

General Lin showed no fear or any emotion other than her cold gaze. Her blue gaze saw through the Vikara with decisive and swift precision. Her rapier flashed like lightning, each time it lashed out, an enemy fell without fail. Her five hundred border warriors had regrouped and were spreading through the hundreds of Vikara.

Several hundred were dead at the gates, dozens of ash piles littered the streets. However, for every dead Vikara, there were at least two dead citizens. The border guard moved with their cold unfeeling General. As surely as she defended the city, so did they support her. Warriors at her side swept through alleys and side streets. Warriors at her back protected the wounded and comforted the dying.