Chapter 18

With the realization that I had become the default leader I froze, mentally and physically. I had never even considered being a leader, and I certainly didn't want the responsibility. It passed as one of the twisted roared again. We didn't have time for me to freak out. Not now. Once I was done freaking out I got down to business. "I will try to deal with those monsters, but we need to leave. Megan and Karen, head down and get Heather and Bryan then grab some of my clothes, food, drinks, whatever you can find. The rest of you grab what you want from here." I told them.

"Do we have to leave?" the boyfriend asked. "If you deal with the monsters we should be fine, right?"

"You can stay if you want. I'm leaving though." I told him.

His girlfriend punched his arm then gave him a pointed look when he looked over at her.

I ignored the pair, I didn't have time for it. They would make their own decision and have to live with it. "Alright Enya, Delilah you are with me." I said then headed for the door. I wasn't sure what those monsters were doing, but the idea that someone could have died because I had waited so long sickened me. It wasn't my responsibility to save everyone. I knew that, but the fact that they were right outside, and I could deal with them changed things a bit. At least I knew it changed how I felt about it.

There were two ways out of the apartment building, the car we needed to leave was in the same direction as the twisted. As I ran down the hallway I saw a bunch of others peeking out of their apartments nervously, but they all ducked back inside and closed their doors once they saw me. I wasn't sure why, maybe they thought I would ask them for help?

At the end of the hallway I took the stairs down to the first floor and then pushed the front door open just enough to see what was going on without drawing too much attention to me.

Enya shot past my head and out the door, then was back before I could even tell her to come back.

"The three of them are fighting against a man with blonde hair and a really big dog. He is holding his own, but I don't think they will last much longer." Enya told us.

I frowned then pushed my head out a bit farther so I could see what she saw.

I had to step halfway out the door to see where the action was since it was behind the door on the lawn in front of the apartment. Thankfully they weren't anywhere near the cars.

The three twisted looked like mirror images of the one I killed already and faced off against a man with short blonde hair, a tall broad build, and while I couldn't see him very clearly, I knew who he was. I had no idea how Micheal had gotten here so quickly. He was still passed out when I spoke to Courtney, but there was no mistaking him.

The dog beside him would have also been familiar, if he was a quarter of the size he was. He was a huge golden Labrador who matched Micheal in shoulder height. As a golden Labrador he looked like Courtney's dog Chewy. Together Micheal and Chewy were keeping the three twisted occupied, but only just.

"Master, as much as I hate to say this, the best idea would be for you to rush them and use your dark fire to burn them like you did the last one." Delilah told me. "If you can do it I would suggest using two fireballs to take out two twisted at the same time. They are faster than you and not constrained by an apartment, once they know you are there it could be hard to hit them with your magic without risking those others."

"Why would you hate to say that." I asked as I stepped out the door in preparation to do just that. I concentrated on my magic and imagined calling forth the black fire I had used before.

It took a moment as the mana seemed to fight it for a moment, or maybe it was confused, but then it flowed to my arm and a ball of the dark fire appeared in my hand. I shifted that fireball into my other hand then created a second just as Delilah had suggested.

"We can discuss that afterward, Master." Delilah told me.

"You have a lot of questions to answer." I told her, but I also agreed with her.

I ran forward trying to stay behind the monsters and out of sight, Thankfully they weren't very smart, and didn't notice my approach before it was too late.

Micheal and Chewy noticed me, but they stayed focused on keeping the monster's attention on them. I moved into position behind two of the twisted before I tossed the fireballs onto the two closest twisted. I immediately conjured a third fireball to throw at the last, but the screams of the other two alerted it to my presence. It spun around incredibly quickly, too quickly. I had barely been able to direct the flow of my mana to my hand so I could conjure the dark fire and it was already facing me as the primary threat. I couldn't help but realize I had gotten incredibly lucky against my first twisted.

The scream of the other twisted grated on my nerves and enraged the last one. The last twisted roared in anger and rushed towards me.

Spears of shadow and fire flew past me to hit the third monster in the chest. While they hurt the beast it was insignificant, the true help was that the blows pushed the beast back stopping its rush towards me. Unfortunately it also seemed to aggravate it even more. Which worked out for us. Since it was completely focused on me and only me it didn't notice Micheal and Chewy coming up behind it.

I dropped to the ground as the monster swung at me then tried to conjure more dark fire. Unlike the battle with my first twisted I was too distracted and anxious to hold onto the mana inside me let alone shape it into what I wanted. As I tried to grasp the mana it slipped through my hold like water through my fingers.

Chewy leapt onto the monster's back forcing it down into a kneeling position with its head down. Micheal ran up beside it and punted the monster's head. I didn't think it would do much more than piss the monster off, but a sickening crack proved me wrong. The twisted went limp and fell to the ground under Chewy's weight.

Relieved that the monsters were all dead I sat back on my ass. While the double element attack was powerful, I quickly realized it took a lot out of me to use. As the adrenaline started to fade from my system I felt exhausted all over again.

"Daryl!" Micheal shouted as I stayed seated on the grass.

I waved my hand at him motioning I was fine then tiredly pushed myself up to my feet. As many questions as I had for Delilah, the first one I needed to ask was if there was a way to increase my mana pool so I didn't get tired every time I fought. Though to be honest it was awakening Grace that initially tired me out rather than the spear of dark fire.

"You alright?" Micheal asked once he reached me. Super sized Chewy stayed back behind Micheal eyeing me cautiously. That alone convinced me that the over sized dog really was Chewy. Through no fault of my own, that dog had never liked me.

I nodded. "Yeah, just tired." I replied looking around. If Micheal and Chewy were here then Courtney had to be nearby.

"Courtney went in through the back." Micheal answered my unasked question for me.

I nodded then turned to face my best friend. To my utter horror, the handsome man that I had been jealous of despite our friendship, had somehow managed to become even more handsome, I mean seriously how could one man have so much good luck! He was six feet three inches, wide shoulder and covered in muscles. Before he had only been handsome and in really good shape, now his features and the definition of his muscles seemed to have been chiseled by an artist. He was the ultimate model for those teen and adult romance novels. The only thing about him that I felt I won out on was the fact that my blue eyes were darker and fathomless, while his were the bright blue of the sky. Even then it was a matter of taste.

Despite being the source of many of my insecurities he was also my best friend who had helped me through some really tough times. "So, what happened to Chewy?" I asked looking past Micheal to the dog.

"Shouldn't we worry about those who were left in the restaurant?" Chewy replied himself with a deep voice scaring the shit out of me. Though I recognized it as the voice I had heard over the phone when I spoke with Micheal previously. The one I had assumed was some kind of government official.

"Shit!" Micheal cursed then started running toward Little Mike's with Chewy leading the way.

I frowned then followed after him.

"Can the pair of you hide your presence?" I asked aloud when I realized Micheal hadn't even commented about Enya and Delilah.

"Yes master." Delilah replied. "Unless you identify a person as a friend or at least someone worthy of trust, we will hide our presence from them."

"So back in that apartment…" I trailed off.

"He probably thought you were talking to yourself." Delilah answered.

"But the girls?" I asked before I paused at the edge of the street to look for cars. There weren't any so I followed after Micheal who hadn't even bothered to look as he ran after Chewy.

"I thought they were your mates." Enya replied.