An Ambush

An Ambush
\[Lucian’s POV\]
I watch silently while Pandora stands firm, addressing the children who are still too young to have ever seen the throes of war. She’s doing a beautiful job of calming them, and I feel a wave of pride rush through me.
“That’s my girl.” I murmur, smirking.
“She isn’t yours.” Victor’s voice is firm as he speaks, and for a moment I want to smack him, but in a way he’s right.
She isn’t mine. She isn’t anyone’s. She is her own person, and with each passing day, she was becoming more and more of the woman she was always meant to become.
I can’t wait to see how she progresses through the years. I think, but then stop as a pang of pain shoots through me.
Oh. Right. There was a chance that I wouldn’t get to see that, at least not anytime soon. Not if I was stuck to relive my childhood once more.
“Lucian.” Pandora’s voice is even as she looks over her shoulder at me. “Help me get them into the panic room.”
“What about me?” Victor whines. “Won’t they trust me more than him?”
“Both of you,” she sighs, her eyes rolling. “We need to move quickly. We don’t know how far the enemy has already come.”
“You heard her.” Victor growls, not wasting any time. “All of you get moving. Get into the panic room where it is safe. Come on now, get.”
He doesn’t wait for their responses before he is moving, carrolling the children into the room while Pandora and I help with the stragglers. And once they’re all in, we prepare to go ourselves, but don’t get the chance before the sound of footsteps reaches us.
Turning, I watch as warriors move toward us, and just from what they’re wearing, I know that they don’t belong to Crimson Moon.
“Get moving!” I hiss, grabbing Pandora’s hand and then moving. “They’ve arrived; we need to…”
“Victor!”
Pandora’s voice rings out as a blur of red moves past us, and I realize that that idiot is actually going to try to fight them on his own.
“We can’t just leave him!” Pandora says, and I can feel her fighting spirit pressing against my skin. “We have to help him!”
“You,” I say slowly, feeling my innate abilities awakening. “Need to get into that room where you’re safe.”
“What about you?” She demands, clearly not happy. “You’re still recovering!”
“That doesn’t matter. Not right now.”
It didn’t. Not when there was only one solution. I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing when someone who meant a lot to me in my own time was throwing himself into danger without thinking.
“He won’t be able to take them on alone.”
It’s all I say before my claws begin to extend and my canines protrude, and when I feel my power beginning to thrum through me, I move, rushing forward, surging past Victor, and then slamming my body into one of the men.
Letting out a growl, I dig my teeth deep into his throat while my claws rake across his sides, and when I taste blood, I pull back, dealing as much damage as I can.
Releasing my opponent, I leap backwards and watch in horror as he disappears in a puff of smoke while the rest of his friends continue to move forward.
“The mage is here!” I roar, realizing that the warriors heading toward us were illusions. “He managed to get into the packhouse.”
“What do we do?” Pandora asks, coming up beside me. “I’ve never dealt with a mage before.”
“Why are you here?” I demand, pulling her behind me as a wall of bodies slams into us and then disappears. “I told you that you needed…”
“Yeah, yeah,” she huffs. “I’m not going to hide when my pack is under attack.”
“And what do you intend to do?” I snap. “As you can see, we are dealing with something we’ve never dealt with before.”
“Then we need to figure out how to take that mage on together.” She responds. “Look, can’t you see that these warriors are basically smoke? They can’t hurt us.”
Nodding, I watch as they continue to move past us. I’m not certain if they have to complete their mission before disappearing or if the mage hasn’t realized that we have caught on, but they continue to come, one after another after another.
Just ahead, I can spot Victor attempting to fight them, but each time he seems to get his claws or his mouth on one, they disappear, and he’s left in a state of confusion.
“They’re not real!” I call, drawing his attention. “If you stopped for a moment and actually took in your surroundings, you would see that.”
For a moment, Victor just stands in place, clearly stunned over what is happening, and when he finally shakes off the confusion, he heads towards us and shifts into his human form.
“What the hell is happening?” He demands as we all begin to stand back-to-back. “There are so many of them, but none of them are real.”
“Maybe not these warriors,” I say, trying to spot the mage amongst them. “But there is a real person somewhere nearby.”
“What do you mean?” He asks.
“This is an illusion.” I explain, though I feel that someone who was training to protect Pandora should at least already know such a thing. “There’s a mage somewhere nearby. Keep your eyes open because he could attack at any moment.”
As I speak, I begin to hear the faint sound of clapping, and when it grows stronger, I see him slowly heading towards us.
“Good job,” he smirks, amusement clear on his ugly face. “It seems that you won’t be fooled by my illusions, but that’s fine because soon you will be dealing with me instead of them.”
"He's here," Pandora whispers as I fix my gaze on the mage who walks towards us. "Keep your guard up because you don't know what could happen."
"That's a given," I agree.
"Let him get close." Victor says, his excitement clear in his voice. "No matter what he does, I won't let him hurt the princess."
"Don't do something stupid." I snap. "Right now, the best thing we can do is work as a unit because if we try to play the hero, I'm certain he will pick us off one by one."
"And if that happens," Pandora continues, clearly understanding what I'm saying. "Then the children will be his next victims."