I was busy pissing on a tree, when suddenly...

"Something is wrong," Ragger snarled, his words clipped. His muscles tensed, hackles rising as a growl rumbled in his throat.

"Oi!" I exclaimed, glancing over my shoulder at the grizzled dog. "My piss doesn't stink that bad."

Ragger's eyes flashed, his scarred muzzle wrinkling. "Not you, blotarn."

I scowled, shaking off the last few drops before tucking myself away. "Well then what is it? Your own fault for being cryptic."

"Blood. Lots of blood."

A chill raced down my spine at Ragger's grim pronouncement. I zipped my fly, hopping slightly as I turned to face my companions fully.

Alec's eyes narrowed to slits, his head canting back as he scented the air. A strange expression flickered across his features, there and gone again in an instant.

"Human blood," Alec confirmed, his voice rough. "Turned, too."

"Gak!" Ragger swore in his guttural native tongue. Without another word, the dog burst into a ground-eating run, powerful legs churning up clods of earth as he sprinted up the hill.

Alec followed close on Ragger's heels, his own strides lengthening until he matched the dog's furious pace. Something about the way Alec moved sent a frisson of unease through me. His motions were too fluid, muscles coiling and releasing with an inhuman grace.

Lilly scooped Molly into her arms, cradling the child close as she set off after Ragger and Alec. I watched them go, a scowl tugging at my mouth. Jesus H. Fucking Christ, they had left us in the dirt without a second thought.

The Alec I remembered would never have done that. Loyalty to his people had been bred into his bones. But this Alec... This Alec was different. Changed. And not just physically.

Grinding my teeth, I pushed aside the uneasy thoughts and forced my legs into motion. My feet pounded against the loamy earth as I ran after my companions, lungs burning with the effort. I could see more trees than usual... The shield was down. Whatever awaited us at the crest of that hill, I had a sinking feeling it wouldn't be good.

As I crested the rise, the scene that greeted me snatched the air from my lungs in a strangled gasp. The forest floor was a charnel house of shredded flesh and splintered bone, the leaves slick with glistening crimson and cobalt blue. Alec stood at the epicenter of the massacre, his back a rigid line as he surveyed the carnage.

"Fuck," I choked out, my gorge lurching against the back of my teeth.

Alec's head snapped around, his eyes glinting with a feral light that sent a chill skittering down my spine. Those eerie iridescent patterns writhed across his skin once more, swirling up his arms in hypnotic whorls and spirals that seemed to dance in the dappled sunlight. What skin I could see, up his arms and across the base of his neck under his chin, had darkened, taking on that blue he. I shuddered, and his gaze hardened as he noticed my reaction.

"We're too late," he said, his voice flat and cold as a slab of granite.

I shook my head in mute denial, praying this was just some twisted nightmare I could wake from. But the coppery stench of blood, acrid smoke and viscera flooding my nostrils told me otherwise.

Lilly edged up beside me, Molly clutched tight to her chest. The little girl had buried her face against Lilly's neck, her tiny frame quivering like a leaf. Lilly's throat bobbed as she swallowed hard, her arms tightening around Molly as if she could shield her from the horror.

Lilly cradled Molly close, murmuring soothing nonsense even as her own eyes glimmered with unshed tears. "Shh, baby girl, I've got you. We'll figure this out, okay? We'll...we'll find the others." The words tasted like ash on her tongue.

With a clench of her jaw, she picked her way after Alec, navigating the gory underbrush with grim determination.

I tried to step forward, but couldn't. With will and effort, I forced my feet to move. "Mathis?"

Only the wind answered, keening through the skeletal remains of the once-thriving cooperative. Everywhere I looked, I saw only ruin - splintered crimson crystal, tattered scraps of hide, viscous cobalt blood congealing in obscene puddles. Revulsion crawled up my gullet, mingling with a sorrow so profound it stole my breath.

"Molly," Lilly said, her voice gentle as she cupped the back of the child's head. "Do you hear the others? The Matriarch, what was her name, uh, Geela? Did she survive? She could have made it through this, right? How about the Banshees?"

Molly just shook her head, burrowing deeper into Lilly's embrace.

"Fucking shit fuck," Lilly bit out, each obscenity more vehement than the last. "Three-balled hairy titty bitchin' donkey ass fuck fuck FUCK."

I didn't have much to add, Lilly had said it all.

Something flickered across Alec's face as he glanced back at us, there and gone too fast to decipher. He turned away without a word. Recognition? Pain? Had he... Did he know Geela?

Realization dawned on me. Was that what the meeting between Ragger and Geela had been about? Had Alec come into contact with her?

"We must search," Ragger said. "Come."

As we inched forward, unbelievably, the horror and gore increased.

The community lay in utter ruin. Scorch marks blasted the earth in ugly black smears, and the towering red stones had been reduced to rubble. The devastation was so complete, I could not immediately recall any other situation like it.

"Angels," I muttered, glancing at the tree tops. Sure enough, the tops had been sheared away by the low flying aircraft we had dubbed "Angels."

"They didn't stand a chance," Ragger intoned. "I can sense a few life signs. But I don't know..."

Alec crouched beside the mangled remains of a Reaver, his gaze drawn to the frayed tendon hanging from the ruined socket like a macabre streamer. He traced a finger along the putrid green sinew, feeling the slick, ropey texture beneath his touch. The Reaver had been wrenched apart by tremendous force, its limbs scattered like discarded toys.

"Look at this," he said, his voice leached of inflection. Long fingers lifted a ragged limb into view, strands of flesh dangling obscenely. "Explosions can do this, but..."

I gagged, clamping a hand over my mouth. Lilly materialized at my side, her freckles stark against the pallor of her skin. She swallowed hard, her throat working. "Fucking hell. What could've done that?"

"Look at how the tendon fully ripped away from the socket?" He ran a finger along a piece of green sinew that hung all the way down to the ground. "This Reaver was pulled apart. I can only think of a few Turned that could do this. Matriarchs, maybe Behemoths." He put a hand to his face and pulled it away into a point. "Got that trunk. Usually use it as a club though, not really for fine motor control like this... Or possibly Mirefiends. They kept that nasty crocodilian spin."

"A Goliath, maybe," Lilly said as she crouched down for a better look. "Those things are fuckin' mean. Saw one that came from a Polar Bear once. I about shat myself, thank God it was a dead one. ... How do you know what it looks like when a Reaver has been pulled apart?"

He straightened, his gaze sweeping across the abattoir. In the weak light filtering through the trees, his eyes swirled with kaleidoscopic hues - amethyst and heliotrope, azure and cerulean. Inhuman. Alien.

"I think... I think this might be because of me. I'm sorry."

"It is because of you," Ragger said, padding up softly. "You showed your true form. The silver lining here is that they thought you would be living in our community rather than the human one you were truly abiding in. But you should not be sorry. Just because it is due to your existence does not mean it is due to your choices. Never be sorry for something you cannot help. It is both a waste of energy and time."

Alec glanced at the severed leg again before nodding, his eyes far away. His voice took on a hard edge as he replied. "Yes, I suppose that is a silver lining. That your friends died and mine did not. Geela, though I did not know her name, was my friend too. You're kind of a shitty God, you know that, Anubis? The God of Death indeed."

Ragger weathered the accusation in silence, his expression inscrutable.

Alec sniffed and stood. "Asshole."

He stalked towards a nearby tree, his movements imbued with a grace that set my nerves on edge. With a roar of anguish and fury, he drove his fist into the unyielding trunk.

The wood splintered and cracked beneath the onslaught, the tree toppling directly onto Alec's arm. I braced for the sickening crunch of bone, but Alec heaved against the fallen giant, his muscles straining as he shoved the tree aside. It crashed to the forest floor in a spray of leaves and splinters.

The crash thundered through the ruins and forest for an agonizingly long moment... Too long of a moment. My eyes widened as the crash gave way to a long, guttural growl.

Ragger's fur stood on end, his hackles raising as he bared his teeth. A ripping warning emanated from his throat, the pitch rising and falling in an eerie ululation.

Was he about to attack Alec? I whipped my head towards my brother and found him with his back to me, whole body rigid, his spine hunched and arms clenched at his sides as he balanced on his toes. An even more terrifying roar escaped him, so deep that the sound reverberated through my bones. 

A threat display, I realized. They were both putting on a threat display... And not towards one another. 

"DUCK!" Ragger shouted.

An azure blur streaked past us, slamming into Alec's back with the force of a freight train. Alec's sides burst open in an explosion of shimmering cobalt, the blood creating a momentary halo in the air. The impact launched Alec through the air, traveling through the air at unimaginable speed until he collided with a tree trunk, his body wrapping around the sturdy wood before he crumpled to the ground with multiple sickening crunches.

"ALEC!" Lilly screamed, raw anguish in her voice. "ALEC!" She started towards him, but Ragger darted into her path, blocking her.

"Alec is fine!" Molly screamed. "They are okay, Lilly, Echo is working on him, now get us away from that thing!"

Lilly hesitated, torn, then fled towards the ruined buildings.