by Bonnie Vanak
This had to be a nightmare and I wish I would awaken. I had not seen him since the day I destroyed my family and my world collapsed. Grief and guilt punched me in the guts, and I could only stand there and stare at him in dawning comprehension.
Kallan found me.
Kallan wanted me dead.
Who the hell was powerful enough to defeat him besides me? Immobilized, I could only stand there like a deer paralyzed at the sight of a wolf.
“I told you she was here, Kallan.” A smirk touched Lavender’s purple-tinted lips. “Now, give me what you promised.”
“I’ll give you what you deserve,” he murmured, tapping a long black fingernail against his nose.
Silver robes flew out as he whirled, stretched out his hands toward Lavender. He opened his mouth. Horrified, I saw Lavender’s smile turn into a scream as purple energy streamed out of her. She flung out her arms as if trying to stop him.
Vines from the poisonous orchid snaked toward Kallan, wrapped around his ankles and pulled. Without even looking down, he flicked a finger at them. Unearthly squeals ensued as the vines withered and died.
I could feel Lavender’s grief at losing her plant, her horrified sense of betrayal at Kallan’s duplicity. Her own sense of helplessness.
Her shock at dying.
Kallan siphoned out her magick. Her life force. It sailed into his open mouth. A purple glow ringed his body, pulsing like a neon sign. The hollows of his cheeks filled out, his dark hair now mixed with white gold.
The white gold of a powerful Fionn Fae
Lavender was dying, her cries becoming feebler. Her skin seemed to collapse and then she fell to the ground, a Lavender skinsuit without blood, bone or substance.
An eye blink later, what was left of her body turned to purple ash. Kallan belched, poked a bare foot at the mess. The purple glow faded from his body, but he looked more muscular, solid. Dangerous.
“Excuse me. Such bad manners, but such a delightful meal she made.” The smile widened as he tapped a finger against his plumper cheek. “Hello Sienna. You look well.”
A fingernail now gray, instead of black. I could have destroyed him when he was weak. Blew it. Now he was powerful again and any energy I exhibited, he would absorb and use to weaken me and kill Kara.
Desperate, I fought to control my power and my emotions. Kallan fed off negative energy.
“Sienna, let’s go.” Kara grabbed my hand.
My feet turned into concrete blocks, my body immersed in ice. I could not even utter a word, faced with the worst horror from my nightmares standing before me.
Kara had no such terror. She shifted into a dragon the size of a pony, a beautiful silver dragon, scales glittering like diamonds beneath the harsh fluorescent lights.
The dragon roared and blew fire at Kallan, who laughed and vaporized into water, extinguishing the blaze.
But she bought us time. Kara shifted back and all but picked me up and ran for the exit.
We’d barely cleared the landing when a motorcycle burst through the glass lobby windows, skidded to a halt.
“Get on, Sienna!” Grayson roared.
Kara! I turned, but Kara had already bolted out the broken window, shifted into a dragon once more and flew away.
I climbed on, wrapping my arms around his waist and Grayson gunned the engine, jumping the bike through the window. We landed hard on the pavement, the bike turning, but he balanced it right side up and we roared off.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Kallan leap out of the broken window and dissolve into gray fog. Clouds blotted out the thin sunshine, and the sky turned indigo.
Aw damn. I knew what this meant.
“Better find shelter, now!” I screamed at Grayson. “We have to get inside!”
No matter where we went, we’d put the human element in danger. They would die because of me in Kallan’s ruthless quest to tap into my powers.
No more innocent blood on my hands.
“We have to keep going,” Grayson yelled back at me. “Can’t risk stopping!”
He drove down a side street, riding parallel to the main street. As he passed a group of buildings, the sky turned black with fat rainclouds.
The sickly sweet smell of ozone filled the air. As Grayson went to make a turn on another street, a flash filled the air. Out of nowhere, a lightning bolt slammed into the brick building. The wall exploded. The bike skidded and went sideways. I threw up my arms to protect my head. Grayson righted the bike again and we tore off.
“You can’t outrun him,” I yelled. “He has the power of changing the weather. Of being the damn weather!”
“Watch me.”
“There’s a park off route 30. We can hide there. Head there!”
People might be there, but it was better than ducking into a crowded restaurant. The park had plenty of room to roam. It was late enough in the day that not many children, or families, would be there.
Rain poured down, making the road slick, but Grayson navigated with skill. All I could do was cling to him and try to tamp down the power flaring inside me, wanting to fight back. Normally I adore the smell of fresh rain, renewing the earth, but this carried a foul smell, like rotting food.
I could barely see through the sheets of rain, which turned into ice, making the road treacherous. Around us, cars skidded and horns blared. The humans were stunned to see a summer day turn to icy winter.
Even for Cheyenne, it was extreme.
Finally we reached the park. Only a few cars were parked near the playground. Grayson drove past them, and lightning bolts struck the playground, turning the plastic slide into melted goo. Thankfully no one was there to get hurt.
It was only a matter of time before someone did, however.
Grayson must have read my mind, because he drove away from the cars toward the lake. Weather had driven people away from enjoying the water, and the banks of the lake were deserted. Roaring over the grass, Grayson drove the bike near some trees. He parked, hopped off and helped me up.
A chilling wind skirted over the water, freezing it and turning it into a layer of ice. I shivered.
“We have to fight this,” Grayson shouted.
“No, we have to flee. You can’t fight this.”
“The hell I can’t. I have to keep you safe.”
“I’m safe enough.” Nails dug into my hands as I struggled against my surging powers. Pain centered me, but it wouldn’t for long. Faced with such power, my own magick would respond, like gasoline to a lit match.
It was exactly what Kallan needed to draw out my power and absorb it for himself.
“He can’t keep this up. If we run, his powers will fade. It’s only temporary,” I screamed at Grayson, but he ran off, ignoring me.
“Stay here!” he ordered over his shoulder.
In a cloudbank of droplets, Kallan materialized on the bank. Silver robes flowed around him, snapping in the wind. But his hair had turned pale again, his body thinner and his nails black. Whatever power he’d leeched from Lavender was fading, due to the storm he had created.
If we waited long enough, we could outlast him and be safe.
Grayson shifted into a timber wolf the size of a Shetland pony. He growled, showing rows of sharp teeth and fangs.
Face palm. How could a wolf duel a being like Kallan?
Kallan stretched out his hands at the water, and a wall of water rose up, two stories high. Brave, foolish Grayson snarled at the threat as if Kallan was another predator on four legs.
Not a being who could control the weather and send a lightning bolt into his body.
It was like watching a man armed with a butter knife faced an army holding machine guns. I couldn’t let this happen.
Not again.
Grayson had no idea what he faced. Who he faced.
My powers could stop Kallan. No one else could.
I held out a hand and pulled off my leather glove. It glowed not the red of passion, but the blue of purpose.
Destructive purp
ose. For years, I’d avoided this. Denied my nature. Now, to save innocents who might get hurt in the crossfire, and Grayson, I had no choice.
I had to use my magick.
As I breathed deep to summon the magick, the wall of water advanced across the lake at Grayson. My lover would drown. Nothing could escape that destructive force. You couldn’t outrun it, or stop it. Tears clogged my throat. I didn’t want to do this.
But I must.
My hands glowed a deeper blue and I felt the magick inside me laughing, joyous to at last have free rein. Energy traveled from my chest, my heart that contained the magick, spread throughout my body. I directed it to my arms.
Before it reached my forearms, something astounding happened.
Chapter 26
If I didn’t see it with my eyes, I would have thought myself hallucinating.
Grayson kept growling at the water as it advanced and crested, ready to crash down upon the bank. But instead of a large, muscled gray timber wolf, he had changed.
Tendrils of power glowing on my hands drifted over to Grayson, recognizing my lover who had absorbed some of my magick when we made love.
And then deep indigo pulsed around him, as if his aura had manifested itself. What stunned me was the energy directing outward from the indigo color. Pure energy that only a Fae could summon.
As the water advanced and started to crash down toward us, Grayson snarled and a blue streak of energy sailed out of his mouth toward the water. The two story wave descended to about three feet high, and then froze in place.
My jaw dropped. Did Grayson do that? Or Kallan? Was it a trick of his to disarm me so he could steal my power?
Kallan dropped his arms and stepped back, looking unsettled for the first time since our confrontation. And then the wolf breathed another streak of indigo and the ice burst into shards, aimed at Kallan.
Kallan ducked, but he wasn’t fast enough. One sharp grazed his cheek, drawing blue blood.
The corners of his mouth lifted in a sneer. “Soon, you bastard. I’ll be back. Soon. And then both of you,” he pointed at me, “will die just like Lavender.”
The Fionn Fae clapped his hands over his hand. A thunderbolt boomed, and the Fae vanished. But not before I saw him grimace, the once-smooth skin etched with lines of pain.
With a last growl, Grayson snapped his jaws. He turned away and loped back to me. Ice lay scattered on the lake bank, on the grass, dripping and melting as the sun emerged once more. The rapid sound of my own heartbeat echoed in my ears.
Something clawed inside me for release.
I’d forgotten the enormous power I’d summoned. Almost at my hands. If it reached my fingertips, I’d have to release it outward, or risk losing total control of it.
Just like last time.
Grayson had taken a little from me, but not enough. Closing my eyes, I focused and yanked hard, as if pulling on a rope. The power whined, and retreated a little.
My body trembled as if someone grabbed me and shook me hard. Power consumed me, danced within me, whined for release. If I didn’t let go of some of it, it would immobilize me like someone grabbing onto live electrical line while standing in water.
Some of the power retreated, but I had called up too much, too fast. I struggled to hold onto it, keep it from escaping. That energy would fry someone an instant, turn green trees into splinters.
Dry up the entire lake.
“Come on,” I panted. “Back away. Back away.”
By now Grayson had shifted back into his human form, clad in jeans, gray shirt and jeans jacket. “Sienna, don’t fight it.”
“I must. I can’t release it. It’s too destructive.”
“Give it to me.” Grayson stretched out a hand as he advanced toward me.
“No, I can’t.” I gasped as it threatened to overwhelm my entire body. All I could think of was smashing everything. The evil had fled, but the power remained, craving the destruction I had sought in order to protect myself and someone else.
“Sienna, trust me. Give some of it to me.”
“Oh yeah?” The last person to say that was now buried six feet under.
“Sienna, do it or you’ll hurt yourself,” Grayson ordered, and there was a harsh tone in his voice I’d never heard before.
“Too late.” It was always too late, always…maybe the lake could absorb some of it and it would be better than letting it zip around the park to kill innocent bystanders.
My right hand glowed electric blue now and I flicked my fingers, ready to release the magick. As I splayed my fingers, Grayson leapt forward in an absurd burst of supernatural speed.
He grabbed my hand.
The magick intended for the lake water careened directly into his body. No! I tried to pull it back, but it flowed like water.
To my second shock of the day, Grayson didn’t scream in agony or burn as the magick flowed into him. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, his entire body glowing blue.
Wonder filled me as I watched him absorb my power like sand absorbing rainfall. When he opened his eyes, the glow surrounding him faded.
His eyes flared electric blue, like mine did when my power surged, and then amber, and then resumed their normal intense aquamarine.
The burning ache had fled. I felt almost normal again, except I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. Not from fear for Grayson, but what I’d just witnessed.
And perhaps, a little fear of him. What was this wolf and what had I gotten involved with?
Chapter 27
Questions darted through my mind. No time to ask them, because I knew we had to get out of here. If other beings drawn to the energy residue left by Kallan didn’t arrive soon, well, the cops surely would. Someone must have seen the incident and reported it as a weather phenomenon at the very least.
I couldn’t risk a single second spent at a human police station, getting grilled about things the paranormal world kept secret. Not that I’d talk, but lingering in such an unprotected and unshielded area was an open invitation for a Fae to glamour himself as a cop and attack me in an eye blink.
The magick gloves were off. I was an open target and needed a place to hide.
Grayson’s place provided the only refuge for the moment. The very place where his people hated Fionn Fae like me.
Could I trust him to keep me safe?
Kallan wanted to drain me dry, wring me out until every last ounce of power was depleted. To him I was a gourmet feast, an electrical current that could supply enough magick to make him invincible.
Undefeatable.
Grayson had already retrieved his bike, the engine humming. He held out a hand. “Get on, Sienna.”
My heart said go with him.
My head screamed no.
“Get on.” Now there was a touch of impatient alpha in his voice. “Come with me if you want to survive.”
I climbed on the back. Survival had been drilled into me since I was old enough to babble a few syllables.
We roared off just as sirens screamed in the background. Grayson found the interstate and didn’t stop.
He finally pulled into the parking lot of a hotel off the interstate, driving toward the back rooms. Pine trees flanked the hotel. Green meadows filled with grazing cattle ringed the property and children played in the swimming pool, shrieking and laughing.
“We’ll spend the night here. Blend in and let you catch your breath,” Grayson told me. “I know the owner. Grizzly shifter. Nice guy, but the place shuts down in winter each year. We can be inconspicuous.”
It looked and felt so damn normal.
Until the dragon landed in the parking lot next to us with a thud that shook the earth and made the bike shudder.
Sunlight glinted off her silver scales. Her green eyes gleamed with intelligence as she folded back her wings. She stood larger than the tractor trailer parked nearby and when she grinned, rows of jagged teeth flashed at us.
“So much for inconspicuous,” I muttered, climbing off the bike.
“Only paranormal beings like us can see dragons. Humans can’t. Except young children with psychic ability,” Grayson told me.
A weary-looking woman, toddler in her arms, marched past as her son stared at Kara.
“Momma, dragon,” the youngster piped up.
She shifted her child in her arms. “That’s right, Tommy, your dragon is upstairs, waiting for your nap.”
Kara winked at the boy, and then when the door closed behind the mother and child, shifted back into her human form.
In biker boots, jeans ripped at the knees, a white graphic T-shirt stamped with a photo of a T-rex wearing neon pink sneakers, my friend looked ready for a rock concert. A tangle of red curls tumbled past her shoulders. Pretty enough to be a model, with pale skin and long-lashed eyes, Kara seemed human.
Hard to believe she had been a dragon large enough to devour a cow in the field.
“I suppose you want your pay,” Grayson told her as I climbed off his bike.
“Send it to my private bank account. I came here to check on Sienna.”
Nodding, he pointed to the office. “Going to get us a room. Stay with her until I return.”
Kara’s palm was warm as she squeezed my hand. “That was close. Too close. I should have seen it coming. Lavender’s power didn’t fully manifest itself until today.”
“Thank you for watching over me.”
“Wish I could stick around, but I have a few loose ends to tie up at work. Cover up the mess, offer a logical explanation. Part of the services. I’ll put in your resignation for you. Arrange it so Randall won’t rip you off this week’s pay.”
Save me the trouble as well. I thanked her. “Where will you go now? Another assignment? What does a mercenary dragon do?”
“Whatever she can to survive.” Kara folded her arms.
“What about your family?”
“Dead,” she said briefly. “One reason I took this assignment. I need the money if I’m going to live away from my people. They’re pressuring me to return to them so I can choose a mate and make little baby dragons.”
Judging from the torment in her eyes, it wasn’t an easy decision to make.