Free Raven Moon by Eva Gordon Page B

room spiked her adrenalin. The ape ghouls had made it to their floor. On instinct Rave shifted. Raven magic enabled her clothes and held objects to shrink to molecular size, leaving her broken arm unsupported. She cawed from the onslaught of agony as the pull of gravity tormented her dangling wing. Rave hopped and spread her good wing for balance. She clucked, “This is not working, I’m going to return to human form.”
    Cashel whispered. “Princess, stay a raven. I’ll carry you.”
    Rave was in too much pain to argue.
    They dashed out the door. Beccan fired at two charging chimpanzombies. They headed toward the stairwell as four maddened apes came charging up. Beccan shot one but another ape leapt on his back and tore his fangs into his scalp, while another bit him in the belly and dug out his intestines. Horrified, she stared at Beccan as life snapped from his eyes; the bite to his skull fatal. Petrified like a bird trapped inside a cat’s mouth, she stilled into bird paralysis.
    Cashel shot them through the brain and dashed down the stairs with her under his arm. He’d made it to the third floor when three more appeared. He crushed her in his tight hold and she cawed, shocked from her frozen state. He opened fired. Only one fell and Cashel dashed up to the fifth floor.
    A room door stood open with a bin of towels just outside, frozen in time, as if the maid was ready to clean. Cashel set her in the room. “Stay here.”
    “Wait,” she cawed, but before she could argue, he slammed the door shut, tested the lock and then left.
    “Here!” He lured them away from her.
    Rave held her breath. If he reached a window, he could fly away and return later for her.
    Gunshots and his holler spiked her heartbeat. No! Rave crawled under the bed and used her good wing to muffle Cashel’s cries as the apes ripped him apart. His cries silenced quickly as did his gunfire. She crept out, shifted and ran into the bathroom. Bile rose in her throat but she suppressed her need to throw up, fearing they would hear and smell her. Ravens had a natural ability to control their nausea, but she was close to her limit. Her left hand trembling she reached for her gun and crouched in the corner. Her kind was ambidextrous so aiming it to her head with her left hand would not be a problem. She would join Cashel and Beccan in death.
    Suicide was her only option. Soon, I’ll ride the eternal thermals with both of you. That is, if I’m worthy, after all, your deaths were my fault. Please forgive me. Rave raised the gun to her head. How ironic that as a rebellious teen, she’d threatened suicide after her parents grounded her, literally, no flying. How did they know she would not carry out her threat when they clipped her primary wings? They knew. Despite her heated defiance, did her parents know how much she loved them? Tears welled. If only I could say goodbye.
    Rave stared at her shaky hand holding the Glock. Death had always fascinated her especially since her clan had been in the coffin business, but taking her life was something she could never do. Until now. If only there was a chance of escape. To deliver the video of the new threat. Not possible. Not with her guards dead. A spasm of pain shot through her and of all the shitty luck, she dropped the gun. She struggled to move but instead bird paralysis returned.
    Damn! Her mind still spun with the coming slaughter, but her human body was as inanimate as a statue after the trauma of losing her men and her broken wing rendered her helpless to the bird phenomena.
    ****
    Maddox rushed toward the rattle of rapid gunfire. He charged as two zombie apes ate a man that smelled avian… A raven shifter. Nonetheless, not even a heathen deserved such a terrible fate. He dropped his backpack and roared, but the apes were too preoccupied feasting on the dead raven shifter’s guts to care. A bullet hole to his head meant the shifter ended his life first.
    He scented another shifter a floor above as an