“I am of the blood of Howl From The Ashes,” Ember says, and her voice is small and still like the crook of a scorpion’s tail. The words lie where she sets them. “She did not betray her pack, no matter the temptation.”

She strikes the Shield, the once, against the Lantern. Just at the side, where it shivers. Light erupts, coruscating, giddy with freedom, and the world shudders with fractured time.

And that is enough for her to vault up onto one of the lantern posts that line the Portuguese streets, and from there she launches herself at the Alpha. It is the Lantern that impacts the proud warrior in the stomach, sends her flying back, and Ember herself is just the counterweight, the straps of the Shield biting into her arm as she sends it careening through the rival pack.

She lands heavy on a transport; where the Lantern lands, the road fractures in a roar of splintered tar and stone. One cuts through her cheek, unprotected, and perhaps one of the watching Portuguese sees how the cut scabs immediately.

“We rise roaring from Bitemark!” She stands, proud against an entire pack, baring her keen teeth. “We come with a goddess at her back! And if you will not show me how to call them back, I will send us all there, too!”

[[b]7[/b] to Finish with Blood.]