We took the horses back to the ranch and ran back towards the village to find Asher. I felt Obsidian enter my mind sending me comfort upon sensing my distress. I pushed on, running ahead of our group when I spotted Asher's chalky hair moving above the passing crowds of people.

"Asher!" I shouted gaining his attention.

He turned around and I skidded to a stop in front of him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, narrowing his eyebrows.

I grabbed his arm and led him into a near by ally my friends in tow.

"There was a vampire, he attacked a human, we have taken care of it but he got away," I said in a hushed voice.

Asher sighed and looked down unsurprised.

"Asher?" I questioned noticing that his sword was coated in black blood.

"The principle ordered me to search the village for demons because there were reports of the humans mysteriously disappearing and I've already had to kill three, and that was without having to use magic to find them," he said shaking his head.

I looked at him blankly and beckoned him to continue.

"The world is changing Aurora, the demon population is growing and more of the supernatural are joining them and becoming careless when it comes to feeding," he said.

I looked down at the ground and bit my bottom lip nervously.

"The vampire... he knew my name," I said hesitantly.

Fear flashed across Asher's eyes, he immediately put his arm around my shoulder and began walking in the direction of our dragons.

"Then its worse than we thought, if he knows who you are, he knows what you are capable of... pull up your hood and stay quiet we have to leave now," he said seriously.

I pulled my hood over my eyes and bowed my head following his lead.

"Orpheus and Max stay with us, everyone else go and find the others, tell them to make their way back and stay alert, if that vampire escaped he will be back with reinforcements" commanded Asher.

Orpheus and Max walked either side of us as we made our way cautiously through the village.

"Max, your a hunter which means you can detect demons easier than we can so stay alert," explained Asher.

I watched as Max nodded and held onto the pommel of his sword lightly.

We were finally passing through though the last ally way when a pair of red eyes flashed through the thickening fog. Asher drew his sword and stood firmly in front of me when a pair of hands appeared.

"Oh, it's just you" breathed Asher lowering his sword as Shade emerged form the fog with Chase behind him.

"Make yourself useful and stay with Aurora," said Asher before disappearing into the fog so the only part of him I could see was his outline and the soft shimmer of his silver blade.

Shade approached me and walked by my side with his daggers dangling loosely from his hands, I drew my own daggers and watched as Asher, Chase, Max and Orpheus walked around searching the area.

" We shouldn't have come here," he said angrily breaking the silence.

"It's a bit late now, " I said bluntly.

I saw Max stop ahead of us and look around, I watched in horror as a creature with dark red eyes fell heavily from the roof of a lefthand building, landing onto of him.

"Max!"

I ran over to him to see that the creature was limp on the edge of his sky facing sword. Relief flooded through my body as I yanked him to his feet.

"I can't protect you if you run away from me" hissed Shade yanking me away from Max.

"I don't need your protection" I replied venomously as I squirmed pout of his grip.

"Whatever" he sighed pulling me into his chest.

"Shade seriously get the hell off" I screamed turning around to face him.

The next thing I knew we were on the floor, extensive pain covered my back as I felt a pair of sharp claws peeled away my skin. I screamed out in agony and dropped my head onto Shades chest before rolling away with as much force that I could muster.

Spinning around I backed up slowly as the creature approached. It took the form of a large wolf but had terrible black rotted skin that had only a few patches of dull fur letting me know that it was a standard demon and could be killed relatively easily, it also contained long, spear like claws that protruded unnaturally from its considerably small paws. They scratched tauntingly on the sone floor as it stalked forward growling powerfully as it contemplated how to kill me.

I looked slowly over to my daggers that were laying on the ground near Shade, who was currently battling two of the beasts. Knowing that demons could only truly be killed by decapitation or a blow straight through the heart I knew that I couldn't kill it by luck.

Regretting not carrying my usual amount of weapons, I lunged forward weaponless and dodged another oncoming demon before plunging my hand into the creature's chest, ripping out its heart. I watched as its lifeless body hit the ground with a small thud and dropped its heart next to its head.

One down.

I sprinted over to my daggers and picked them up, decapitating a third demon that pounced for Shade. He looked at me blankly before one of the other demons took him out, swiftly sending him to the floor, he held his blade inside his mouth to prevent its deadly teeth from sinking into his flesh as turned to face me.

"Aurora!" he shouted half heartedly.

I span around and stabbed a demon through its chest before sprinting over to Shade, I drove one of my daggers through the attacking demons head and flung it to the side before chopping off its head.

"I guess you're the one who needed protection" I laughed sarcastically as I pulled him to his feet.

He held back a smirk and pushed me out of the way stabbing an approaching demon through the chest. I steadied myself and looked at his face that had now turned back to its usual smug look.

"I gu-" he began

"CALL YOUR DRAGONS, THERE ARE TOO MANY" screamed Asher over the chaos cutting Shade off.

I immediately reached through my mind to Obsidian and he responded quickly, sending me an image of the sky. He was already of his way.

A thunderous roar pierced the air, I looked up to see Obsidian and the other dragons flying above us.

Relief flooded though me as the dragons started to fly down and pick up their riders. Obsidian approached me and Shade and picked us both up in each of his long claws, he shot up into the air and dropped us carefully onto Shades dragon, Incendro's back.

I grabbed Shades shoulders to balance myself and stood up.

"What are you doing?" he asked placing one of his hands on mine to prevent me from falling.

"Something crazy," I said nervously.

I tapped his shoulder and looked down at the chaotic scene below me.

"Obsidian! Volar" I screamed.

I took a deep breath and jumped off Incendro. I fell through the sky quickly, praying that Obsidian had heard me. To my relief, he let out a loud roar and speed down blow me, I landed safely on his back and grabbed ahold of him. I pictured what I wanted him to do and he began to drop back down towards the scene, there was nobody left apart from the demons that sulked around looking up into the sky.

I signalled Shade and flew low, with him in tow, we lured the dull creatures away from the village to make sure that they didn't harm any more of the humans.

To our satisfaction, they surrounded the area below us and got ready to attack in a tight bundle like cattle lining up for slaughter. I smiled over to Shade and then down at the demons and patted Obsidian's neck.

"Ferberno"

Obsidian and Incendro both opened their jaws to release blazing orange flames, their deadly dragon fire engulfed the demons and devoured them, wiping away any trace that they ever existed.

Once I was satisfied, we flew triumphantly back up towards the others to see Zack dangling between Cobalt's claws. I laughed quietly looking at his sulking face and flew directly below him. Zack dropped down lightly behind me and wrapped his arms around my torso.

"I can't believe they attacked, especially knowing how many of us there were," he said in disbelief.

"They didn't care, their purpose wasn't to get rid of us all, they were there as a message," I said thoughtfully.

"What message?" asked Zack.

"That the war has officially begun"