I don’t know if it was adrenaline or something else, but Ainslee barely slowed down and didn’t make a sound other than a grunt of pain as that big fuck off beam ripped through the left side of her torso, just above her hip. That slight slowing of her speed, and a panicked stumble backward, prevented the Dark Elf from having her throat sliced open or perhaps her head cut clean off by the crackling crimson energy in Ainslee’s right hand that looked suspiciously like a sword. Instead, the other Fae woman took a wound to her left cheek that would probably leave a nasty scar.

Ainslee wasn’t so lucky. She had a large gaping hole in her side and the wound was bubbling and hissing as if she’d been hit with acid, and that bitch’s hand was glowing again as she raised it and got ready to take another shot. Ainslee didn’t let that happen.

The crackling crimson blade flashed toward my best friend’s opponent and the dark-skinned Fae was suddenly screaming and clutching a steaming stump where her right forearm had once been. Whatever that energy was, it had probably instantly cauterized the stump because I couldn’t see any sign of blood other than Ainslee’s. And that was when Ainslee stumbled into the screaming young Fae woman and sank her fangs into her neck.

All of this seemed to happen in an instant as I stared on in horror and fear for my best friend. And now that big asshole was heading right for her too. “Moonlight, get ready to make yourself visible and heal Ainslee, she looks pretty bad. I’ll try to distract the big guy until the authorities show up,” I instructed my Unicorn companion. There were probably going to be other injuries too, but I wasn’t feeling particularly sympathetic to our attackers, and they would not be receiving Moonlight’s services.

-Of course, Lily. Be careful and keep your distance.- she replied, the concern obvious in her voice.

"I will, I just need to keep him distracted until the police or Vanguard show up," I assured her as I used my magic to launch that huge icicle I had kept hovering nearby at him. “Hey, Asshole, catch!”

It stopped midair and I was struggling to keep pushing it toward him, which I suspected wasn’t just because ice is harder to control than water in its liquid form. He turned to glare at me as he casually took the hunk of ice in hand to wield like a club. Damn, I really wasn’t expecting him to actually catch it, except maybe the business end in his shoulder, violently. He was a big target after all.

“This is my ice; I created it, and I control it. You may have surprised me enough to stop it at first, but it won’t happen again. Stay out of this, insect, this isn’t your affair. This is between me and the cocktease, so do the smart thing and save your own skin. You don’t want to be added to my list.” He barely spared me a look as he gave his little monologue and turned his attention back to Ainslee, who was going to town on his girlfriend’s neck while the Dark Elf continued to scream herself hoarse.

Her wound was healing, so fast I could practically see her flesh knitting itself back together. Right, Ainslee did mention something about feeding speeding up her natural regeneration, so it looked like I just needed to keep the asshole off her for a bit and let her drink that Dark Elf like a bitch-flavored juice box. Still, that special ability of his was going to make things difficult.

It sounded like he could not only create and control ice, but he bound the ice he created to him somehow so it couldn’t be used against him. It wasn’t too different than what us Sprites do with our magic, except for the binding thing and he was likely limited in how much he could create from nothing since he hadn’t created more yet. He was probably limited to ice too, but even if I fired blasts of water at him, he looked tough enough to shrug off a lot of water pressure, and what if he could freeze it and give himself more to work with?

Fuck. I couldn’t take that risk, throwing water at him was too risky and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to teleport him somewhere nasty either since I had just gotten a text message from Captain Monroe. -= Containment team inbound. ETA seven minutes. You’re doing fine, keep him talking and his attention on you. Incapacitate him if you can. =-

Incapacitate him?! How the fuck did she expect a five-inch-tall Water Sprite to incapacitate an eight-and-a-half-foot-tall Frost Giant with water that he would probably just turn to ice to use against me? I would have to use… ugh.

It looked like I’d be using Captain Monroe’s advanced lessons sooner than I wanted to, and the whole idea gave me chills. I wasn’t even sure if I could do it since we’d only really gone over the theory of it. Cursing my luck, I began to concentrate on my new task as I tried to get his attention back on me, using my comm crown to amplify my voice via the microphone and sound projection system.

My laughter boomed through the area loud enough that it made me wince as I taunted, “You have a list? Really? Do you check it twice? I know who’s been naughty and guess what, it’s you. Oh, and another fun fact, I’ve been recording this whole time and streaming it to my superior officer in the Vanguard.”

Damn, taunting assholes and focusing on something that Captain Monroe had barely begun training me on was really fucking difficult, and the asshole being even more of a giant than usual to me wasn’t helping matters. I had definitely gotten his undivided attention though because his head swung toward me, and did he ever look pissed.

He stomped toward me with murder in his eyes. Fuck, and now I was going to have to divide my attention further by being ready to make evasive aerial maneuvers or teleport out of the way. His ice club was raised and in position to swing toward me, and I was about ready to teleport out of the way when I felt it all click. He stumbled, looking almost drunk as I smiled and said, “Gotcha.”

The big man was wavering almost instantly, struggling to keep on his feet and keep glaring at me. “Wha… d’you do?”

“It’s simple, Asshole,” I happily explained. “Water Sprites can control water in all its forms; liquid, gaseous, and ice, but if we work at it, we can also control certain other liquids, like blood. Right now, I’m restricting how much blood your brain is getting. You may experience dizziness, slurred speech, difficulty with motor control, and fainting.”

With almost perfect timing, he collapsed to the plascrete sidewalk unconscious, and with great relief, I stopped using my magic and allowed the blood flow to his brain to return to normal, almost ready to collapse myself. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, I guess. That was much harder than I thought it would be, especially dividing my attention so much like I was. Both sensing the blood flow inside his body and controlling it felt weird and unnatural, and it had taken more out of me in terms of both mental focus and mana than most of the bigger stuff that Captain Monroe had been teaching me to do with my magic.

All of that for like a minute or two of work, and now I was feeling a little wiped, but Captain Monroe had warned me that there were more reasons than the obvious one that she didn’t like Blood magic. Oh great, it looked like we were gathering an audience from the nearby buildings too. It seemed like I didn’t have any time for a break, and I was worried about Ainslee and wanted to go check on her before the containment team showed up anyway. I was already collecting more mana as I turned myself to fly over to her, only to find her staring at me.

“You, know, for such a little Sprite, you were kinda terrifying just now,” she said, her emerald eyes wide and locked on me as I approached where she sat beside the unconscious Dark Elf. At least I hoped she was just unconscious. Surprisingly, Ainslee looked fine, except for the blood on her lips, and if it weren’t for the massive bloodstain around the big hole in her dress, it would look as if she’d never been injured at all. The skin looked just as pale, smooth, and flawless as it did everywhere else on her body.

“You… uhh… saw that, huh?” I muttered quietly as I awkwardly looked away, only to realize that the microphone and voice projection apps were still active. We both winced and I quickly shut them off before retorting, “You’re one to talk, Miss Blood-on-your-face. I didn’t know you could move that fast or do that red crackly thing.”

Ainslee hurriedly wiped the blood away and shrugged as she replied, “I usually carefully control my strength and speed. Apparently, my kind is naturally very fast, strong, and agile. I’ve never done that other thing that happened before though. It’s just… she threatened you. I… couldn’t fight to protect Kelly three years ago and I… snapped.”

I landed on her shoulder and hugged her as best I could. “I know, I couldn’t do anything back then either. Look how we’ve grown… well, one of us,” I joked, prompting giggles from both of us as I thought to Moonlight, “Is the bitch okay? Other than, y’know, missing half an arm and hand.”

-Her breathing and heartrate are beginning to return to normal and she does not seem to be in any danger of bleeding out if you can stop the bleeding on her neck wounds, though they are not bleeding profusely. Her arm and the wound on her cheek should be cared for, but neither is bleeding and I do not think that Ainslee took enough blood to cause her any serious harm, I believe she merely fainted from shock,- she replied calmy. -Do you wish for me to heal her?-

“Hell no, she tried to kill Ainslee with that fuck off acid beam of death, as far as I’m concerned, she can just suffer and get mundane medical care,” I told her. Then, after a glance at the big guy to make sure he was still snoozing, I turned my attention back to Ainslee who was looking at the long and deep, cauterized gash across the woman’s left cheek.

“Moonlight says that bitch will live, you didn’t take much blood, but those wounds should be cared for, and we should probably stop the bleeding on her neck. She just fainted sometime after you… disarmed her and took a bite out of crime. We can wait for the containment team unless you want to see if one of those people has a first aid kit and wants to give the bitch… a hand.”

Ainslee snort-giggled adorably. “You’re terrible, Lily. Uh, yeah, people. We should probably do something about that but we're a little... short-handed.”

I gave a giggle snort of my own before I nodded, once again activated my microphone and voice projector apps, and called out in my clearest voice. “The Vanguard will be on site soon to take care of this mess, so please, everyone remain calm. If you have any way of restraining that big guy or have a first aid kit, your assistance would be welcome.”

I turned off the apps again and since nobody seemed willing to approach any closer than they already were to volunteer, Ainslee sighed and muttered, “Fuck it. The dress is already ruined anyway, I really liked this one too.” Then she ripped both sleeves off her once pretty garment and wadded one up to apply pressure to the fang wounds on the Dark Elf’s neck.

Silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity, but it was likely less than a minute before I broke it. “So, Ainslee, are you okay telling me what the hell that was all about? Why did those two want to kill you?”

“The hell if I know,” she muttered angrily before adding, “I’ve never met this bitch in my life, though she’s probably one of that asshole’s rich friends…” Then she proceeded to tell me how this had all started as I listened and kept an eye on the big asshole to make sure he wasn’t waking up.

Terry Lundburg and almost a dozen other kids from obscenely wealthy families had become Altered in an Incursion at some exclusive resort down in Mexico along with a bunch of kids in the nearby city. You know, the type of kids who are used to getting whatever they want, when they want it. The kind who don’t take well to being told ‘no’ and get away with everything.

So, he was probably a rich, entitled bastard before that Incursion. Ainslee suspected that becoming a powerful-looking Altered only made his attitude and sense of superiority worse. She had the bad luck that he came to start his senior year of high school at the same school where she and the twins were going.

I knew that Ainslee was captivating to look at, but she was considered, by far, the hottest girl at school and Terry decided that she would make the perfect trophy girlfriend for him. She told him, in no uncertain terms, that she wasn’t interested in him, or any other guy, then or ever, and he didn’t want to take no for an answer. He threw her against the hallway lockers hard enough to dislocate one of her shoulders and began quietly threatening her. She wouldn’t say what the threats were, but it looked like just thinking about them made her uncomfortable.

Ainslee countered his threats by introducing the powerful fist of her good arm into his conveniently placed groin, in front of Terry’s friends and the large crowd that had gathered, causing him to fold over like an origami crane. Then she made her way straight to the principal to report the incident and the police were involved. Long story made short, despite hallway surveillance footage he was able to get off practically Scott-free thanks to Daddy’s money, a high-priced lawyer, and the wrong judge.

They made it out that Ainslee had instigated things, she got him worked up and then turned him down, and they had witnesses willing or paid to lie to support him. So, he got off with a slap on the wrist instead of assault charges. Still, Ainslee got a restraining order against him and had thought that it was over because the pair had avoided each other for the rest of the school year and, when they did meet in the halls at school, their interactions were frosty. Apparently, the bastard had just been biding his time.

Every word that I heard only made me more pissed off. I should have deprived his brain of blood longer than I did. Fuck the risk of brain damage, that bastard deserved it. I was still fuming, hugging Ainslee the best I could, and trying to console her when I saw the huge hover-transport with Vanguard markings approach.