[center][h2]Claws off the Ghost[/h2]

[i]Themerlinhawk & Wind Wild[/i]

Crow and Amber

Day 3, Evening[/center]

As the Aberrations descended on the deck of Blackwing Crow stood up from the bar and turned around to take in the presence that had ruined what had turned into a really nice evening. As the Knight left the bar making a beeline towards his charge Crow fumbled for his staff. Picking it up he scowled up at the sky as the Aberrations descended to the deck in droves. The first one to notice him and Amber leapt through the air with a flicker of its wings. Crow’s talon produced a sleek piece of razor sharp metal in his left hand as he threw the projectile backhand at the attacker. The knife cleanly passed through the aberrations body in a spray of gore. As the thing landed on the deck Crow’s right hand closed over his staff crushed its skull.

As more descended to the deck Crow hopped backward and left fly with more of his knives before he hissed in Arcadian and a wall of Wyrdfire consumed the next wave of aberrations. Moving smoothly backwards he looked over his shoulder at Amber. With another quick stride he took her hand and tugged her behind him. “We need to find Akime. I can protect you but I’m not sure for how long.” 

Amber’s eyes were wide with disbelief at the sheer audacity those imposters had to show up on a day like this. True, it wasn’t exactly the classical definition of a wedding, but it was one nonetheless and the fact that someone had chosen this time and place to launch a raid didn’t sit right with her. 

For a while she watched Crow fight and longed to be able to join him. Sometimes fighting wasn’t a matter of moral or high ideas but just simple butchering and this was one of those times. Simple aggression. Nothing complicated about it, just beauty and efficiency. 

As he turned and addressed her, she blinked, then felt a thug on her hand and realised he was talking about joining her mistress. Of course. She wasn’t Isabelle anymore, she was Amber and she wasn’t a protector but one in the need of protection. Sad but true. 

“Sure.” She agreed coolly and followed trying not to think about all she’d done to the aberrations if she could fight once more. Still, the smirk couldn’t be contained. “Or you could give me some strength and I can join you in this.” She suggested, voice different. 

Crow turned on her, his eyes held surprise for a moment and then cold calculation. “Okay, but it will be easier if I anchor you to me. So don’t run too far away from me or I won’t be able to feed you power.” With that Crow took Amber’s face in his hands and leaned in pressing his lips to hers and literally breathing life into her. 

Feeding her current form as much power as he could before he finally called up plasm from across the veil to give her a malleable form. With a final surge of magic to seal the form he removed his lips from hers and smiled. “There, draw on my magic if you need more and let me know if you need more plasm if you are injured.” He didn’t use the word damaged. Amber was very much a person and the most alive ghost he’d ever met. Turning back he drew another blade from the talons he was wearing taking up a position on her left. “Tell me what you want me to hit. I will make you invincible so go without fear just stay close.”

Surprise. First it was his, then it was hers. But it was short and what came after felt [i]very [/i] sweet.

A kiss never felt like a kiss with the magic types and of course, he hadn't meant it as one but it didn't mean it wasn't a kiss for her. In fact, she indulged in it; she kissed back even though it was silly and selfish and but an echo of days long past. Her hand buried in his hair and even squeezed a bit as the strange man gave her life once more. The long-lost warmth spread through her body and filled it with sensations she'd thought forgotten.

When their lips parted she was lost between the sensations of joy and immense power. She was grinning and then the lips kept stretching over a snarl and a muzzle and her body melted and reformed in that of a cougar the size of a bus. The first abberant was dead upon impact with Blackwing's railing after Amber's body slammed into it with enough force to break every bone and burst every blood-vessel in its body. “Thank you!” She tested the telepathic link that should have emerged between her and Crow and she truly did mean it. Time to feel alive!

Crow grinned. It had been a good kiss that was for sure. Not exactly something he did often; infact it had probably been years. Her hands tangling in his hair had let him know that it was more than the magic that was appreciated. As he let her go and watched her transformation he matched her snarl as he took the bell from his robes and struck it on his staff. The resonation sent the next batch of Aberrations tumbling to the deck as Crow danced along behind Amber’s path of destruction. Anything that got too close that Amber didn’t turn into a strange colored splatter on the deck of Blackwing was met with Wyrdfire or one of Crow’s knives. 

“Of course.” Crow stepped along right behind Amber’s left flank using her as part shield and part death dealing machine as he picked off any stragglers from her rampage. “I hope you didn’t mind the transference. I’d have felt weird grabbing your heart to give you the magic so…” Crow trailed off as an Aberration got too close and he was forced to sheath his right hand in metal talons and rip its head off. 

The woman’s laugh in his head was only half-human. [I]I appreciate you didn't.[/I] and she did because few of the necromancers she'd ever met were that gentle or considerate. 

Crow stopped and she did too, twisting her body around him to give him additional protection while he was dealing with the fool who got too close. The spray of blood hit her fur and gave it an ironic spotty pattern before dripping slowly downwards. It felt warm at first, quickly cooling. [I]Are you also using their essence somehow?[/i] she asked curiously, motionless for now. She wasn't in a hurry for this moment to end and she was going to play around for a bit, switching between short bursts of aggression and seeming calm. Let them approach a little… soon she'd know what their blood tastes like. 

[i]I can’t, they are aberrants. I can’t even raise their corpses. Its part of what makes them so dangerous. Only directed necromancy or raising of beings from Galendar will work on them. Drawing on their magic is like consuming poison. It reacts poorly with Galendar’s magic.[/i]

With a hop and a quick shift from murder of crows to normal form Crow perched on Amber’s back; stretching out his left hand he absently scratched the spot between her shoulder blades as he surveyed the deck of Blackwing. [i]You know, Ghost Walkers dream of finding a being like you maybe once in their life. At Least the ones that care about doing their job.[/i] With a surge of effort he leapt from her back and slammed his shoulder into an approaching aberrant causing it to slide backward across the deck before he dropped his staff, dropped to one knee and freed the firearm from his lower back. It was a small magazine full auto pistol. With a squeeze of the trigger he emptied the whole of the gun into the aberrant turning it into a gory mist. 

[i]As I was saying[/i] He stood and walked back over to her putting his hands on her side. This time with intention as he extended his senses into her plasmic form. [i]I don’t think I’ve ever met a soul quite so intact after so many years. Not only that but the form Akime gave you hasn’t aged too poorly either.[/i] With another surge of magic Crow repaired the plasm giving her form. There was little to be fixed but it was better that he maintain her form constantly on the off chance that something happened. With another rub he turned back around to watch behind the pair; his Wyrdmask forgotten as he stood letting the night air sap the heat that his body had generated from the exertion. 

It's not like she hadn't heard Crow's explanation or cared for it. It's just that one thing he said made all else pale in comparison.

[i]”Dream”?[/i] That made her smile. Somewhere along the lines she'd forgotten she could be appreciated, [b]liked[/b] even. Of course, Akime, Cole and Ibuki always tried but it was different with them. They were family by chance, not by choice.

But the people at the Tower of Stars were slowly turning out to be nicer than she ever thought possible. First Raven, who was technically the whole reason it existed, then Adela and now Crow...

“You're too overprotective.” She said moving away with the feline grace of flowing water. “But with you I don't mind so much.” With that she told herself to focus on the aberrants and realise that the gravity of the raging battle was actually larger than the gravity of their conversation.

She turned around swiftly and with the motion one gigantic paw was already coming up to swipe at the creature's head. As it narrowly missed, perhaps the imposter thought it was safe but that's when Amber's whole body left the ground and launched itself into the air and to the side of her mark. With her spine twisting at an impossible angle with impossible speed, Amber soon had her teeth buried deep in living tissue and ripping it apart with as little as a low growl.  

Crow grabbed an aberration out of air and dashed it against the ground before suddenly crushing its head under his heel. With that he turned around and shook his head at her. “I am no such thing.” As he watched her leap it suddenly dawned on him that maybe he was towards her and that was what she was talking about

“Do you mean because of how I've been treating you?” With a flick of his wrist Crow drove his staff all the way through a spawn that got too close. Flipping it through the air he ripped it's head off with his talons. Freeing his staff he flicked the gore off of it and turned back to her. “I hate that you are with Akime. I'm sorry if you don't want to hear that but I don't think she has a clue as to what she's really done. Or as to how rare of an individual you are.” The next aberration Crow caught by the head without thinking and held it while it squirmed. Something warned on his face. Part of him wanted to keep telling her how much he hated Akime but a new thought was struggling to surface. Was this just feelings about how Akime had anchored ghost to her or did this have to do with Amber…..

The pop of the aberrations head brought him back to reality as he looked up at Amber. “I'm sorry. I sound like a broken record. Turns out sober Crow isn't so much fun.” He tossed the mangled corpse of the aberration. Putting his hand on her flank he gave her a smile. “Go get em” With a surge of magic he doubled the density of the muscle fibers in her body to give her more killing power. She was a natural at adjusting her body and it was a truly wonderful sight.

Amber’s eyes were alight with long-suppressed power. She felt strong, confident, unbeatable, like herself and not like the girl back at the hotel. The girl that was feared, the one who was dealing pain and not receiving it. Crow’s words and his spells added more fuel to a fire that he himself had started and now it grew into a fearsome blaze that would consume everything in its way.
 
Claws sliced through flesh with the ease of cutting ripe fruit, fangs ripped through necks and shoulders and legs with enough force to send the blood flying upwards, defying gravity before it slowly turned again to bathe the combatants in a red shower. She never stood still, never completely aware of what was threatening her because her movements were lightning-fast and the world was a dazzling flurry of colour and joy. Her muscles screamed, her lungs burned and all the time her heart was aflame with the feelings Crow had evoked. Of that day at the hotel, of the years and decades spent in a shell as harmless as someone [i]wanted[/i] her to be, years of slowly being turned into something she wasn’t.
 
Suddenly Amber realised she was lying on her side; the world stabilised, sideways. Just as quickly she realised someone had managed to knock her over. And suddenly another memory surfaced, of being in the same position, staring death in its cold stormy eyes seconds before Death came.
 
Rage took over. They wouldn’t touch her, not again, not ever.
 
Her shape was melting, literally, magma bubbling through her pores and onto the skin. It was dripping on the wooden floorboards and singing them. A low growl was all the warning she gave the approaching aberrant before she leapt at its throat, a blast of steam erupting from their bodies upon impact. If it was any other creature it would have died in a second. As it was it took a few vicious shakes of her head to completely rip the life out of it.

Of course, that's all the time another one of the creatures needed to make a move. Uncaring about the heat of Amber’s magic and armed with ten spiked tentacles, it aimed one at her and shot it right through her thigh. With a yelp she found herself on the floor once more.

As the Aberrant closed in on the downed Amber, Crow snatched the skull from its bag on his hip and unleashed a literal torrent of souls. They descended on the Aberrants in a mass of talons, swords, arrows and tearing hands. The legion of Gorecrows he unleashed cut down anything that moved.

The creatures had once been the finest soldiers of the Stygian Empire. They had broken the backs of Galendar’s strongest defenses in ages past but now they bent to his will. Five hundred of the most blood thirsty, magically capable and dangerous phantom’s he’d ever been able to muster. It was impossible for him to control them all currently but it was only a matter of time. The twenty or so that he had summoned quickly returned to the Skull and Crow raced to Amber’s side placing his hand on her side to stabilize the form she was using. 

The hits she had taken had sent her emotions racing back across the psychic link. With a quick flick of his eyes up he caught the sight of the massive Bronze Dragon as it tore into the World Breaker. With a smooth movement Crow shifted into his flight form and ascended to her back again. The assault of his ghosts had bought them a temporary reprieve. Sinking his hands into the fur at her neck he rubbed fiercely.

[i]Stay with me  Amber. No losing control. You gotta keep your form stable.[/i]

Ironically what came as a response sounded like laughter more than anything. 

[i]Right here with you[/i] she reported telepathically. [i]...there's just so much to kill and do little time..[/i] beneath his hand he could feel her muscles coiled tightly like a spring ready for release. God, it’d been so long…!