Darius breathed down my neck as he was forced to follow me and we turned down a side chamber where the screams were getting louder and more desperate. They cut off with a gurgled cry which turned to choking and the roar of some enormous Order form rattled through the air, making my spine straighten and magic flare in my fingertips as we closed in on the source of the sound.
We made it to the end of the passageway which was used to store supplies and I reached for the handle of the slightly open door where the sound of a huge creature ripping into flesh greeted us.
Darius caught my shoulder and shoved me behind him as he stepped through the door first, fire flaring in his other fist and making me squint against the sudden brightness of the light in the dark tunnel as the back of a huge, hairy beast was revealed beyond the stacked crates of supplies in the darkest corner of the room.
“Hey!” Darius barked, the fire shining brighter, but as the beast whirled around it knocked into the crates, sending them flying towards us and making me throw my hands up to protect us with a blast of air as we narrowly avoided getting crushed.
The moment they’d stopped falling, I dropped my shield and Darius vaulted over the closest crate, cursing as he reached the far side of the room and I followed quickly, bile rising in my throat as I spotted the bloody remains of the woman who I had to assume was the one who had been calling for help.
“It went that way,” Darius said, leaping over more crates and charging down another tunnel which led off of this one.
I knelt down, feeling the woman’s wrist for a pulse but finding none as I took hold of her arm, the blood from the huge claw marks which had been torn into her chest soaking into the knee of my leggings.
I stood again and turned to run after Darius, knowing there was nothing I could do for her now and taking chase after the sound of his footsteps which were heading away from me into the dark.
Darius swore up ahead and I ran after him as fast as I could go, rounding a corner and almost slamming straight into him as I found him standing at a section of intersecting passageways and scowling around at them.
“I dunno where the fuck it went,” he said, casting an amplification spell but all that brought to us was the sound of people heading to the dining hall and making noises in their chambers, nothing of the beast we’d been chasing.
“What the hell was it?” I asked, looking around like I might spot some clue as to which passage it had taken but there was nothing to make any suggestion as to where it had gone.
“I dunno. I only caught a glimpse of it. Something big and hairy - a Monolrian Bear or a Cerberus maybe.”
“A Nemean Lion could be that big,” I breathed, looking around. “Should we keep hunting?”
Darius considered that for a moment then shook his head. “Let’s go warn the others, if there are more of us looking for it then we will have a better chance of tracking the thing down.”
I nodded my agreement and Darius took my hand, tugging me along behind him as we took off running back towards the main section of The Burrows.
We headed through the slowly gathering crowd in the dining hall then ran into the royal chambers and kept on straight towards Darcy and Orion’s room.
Darius hammered on the door, yanking it open and breaking through the spell put there to lock it when they didn’t reply quickly enough.
“I’ll bite ya ass,” Orion slurred sleepily as he shoved himself upright in the bed, blinking at us in confusion.
“Wake up. There’s been another murder,” Darius demanded, tugging me further into the room and slapping Seth on his hairy ass where he slept in his shifted form at the foot of the large bed.
“Where’s Darcy?” I asked, looking around in alarm and Orion frowned as he glanced at the other side of the bed just as Darcy pushed the blankets off of her head and peeked out at us.
“Here,” she muttered, scrubbing sleep from her eyes in a daze. “Did you say murder?”
“Yeah. And we saw the thing that did it, though we didn’t get a great look, but it was a big Shifter with a massive hairy back so we can narrow it down a bit,” Darius replied as Seth shifted and sat up to look at us, his dick on full display.
"It killed a woman in the supply caverns near the entrance to the tunnels,” I added. “We heard her screaming for help but didn’t get there in time.”
“Alright. Let’s get back on the hunt,” Orion said firmly. “I’ll go get Cal and we can make a plan.”
“Since when did you start calling him Cal?” Seth asked, a whine in the back of his throat but Orion shot away without comment.