by Alexia Black
Under the rain stood a ten feet tall Aether dragon, the last of his kind.
The dragon shook his head, and spread his wings. The white scales glowed orange, reflecting the roaring fire.
The demon narrowed her eyes, her movements almost mechanical. I knew my experience with demons was limited to being swallowed by that one slimy monster but the way she moved didn’t seem right. For someone, who was happy to throw fireballs at us, her movements were jerky. It wasn’t very noticeable because she barely moved. Was the scroll controlling her by limiting her power?
I looked towards Caroline, she was holding in her breath, not needing as much oxygen as other species to survive. Her fingers clutched the sealed scroll, demonic miasma encircling it. If I could grab the scroll, I could control the demon.
The dragon roared louder and the rain fell faster. It was like the clouds had burst open. I turned to my side and curled up in fetal position. The rain drops pelted me like stones.
I couldn’t see anything under the heavy downpour. My visibility was near zero. I could feel the heat from the fire reduce as the sky continued opening up. Soon the fire died down, the rain stopping with it.
I got up and sat leaning against a tree, shivering like a leaf, ribcage rattling under the cold.
The guards I had killed lay just a few feet away from me and beyond that stood the demon and the dragon; two predators locking stares.
For once, Caroline didn’t have that smug smile on her face. She nervously scrunched the scroll and chanted something under her breath. But, I couldn’t make out what she was saying over the sound of my own teeth chattering.
Suddenly, the demons pose relaxed a bit. Her movements were still stilted, but she no longer stood still like a robot. The speed at which fire was gathering in her palm sped up. In a few seconds, she had already formed a fireball, bigger and more powerful than last time. The dragon roared, lightning flashed in the sky, his battle cry. No matter who won this battle, the civilization ledger was going to be painted red.
Chapter 29
Fire and lightning clashed. Aiden’s dragon form was huge but much smaller than other elemental dragons. However, their size gave them an advantage in the air. They were the fastest of all dragons and with their incredible powers and healing abilities, the deadliest of all dragons. But what made them the deadliest supernatural species wasn’t their powers, but the insanity that resided in their souls.
Aether dragons lived for wars, sang songs of bloodlust. They thrived in chaos.
With a snarl the demon ripped away a layer of scales that covered his wings. He swiped at her with his paw, his claws just missed her as she somersaulted away from him, but the moment she hit the ground, lightning struck her.
She flew back from the impact and hit the wall. The entire building shook, the wall cracked. She stood up slowly, and touched the back of her head, her fingers came back coated in black blood.
The dragon sniffed the air. The demon’s blood smelled of fire and sand, coating the air so thickly I could almost taste it. The dragon shook its head as if to clear its head. The smell of blood was triggering the primal battle rage. I knew without a second glance that what I had experienced was not even a fraction of the battle lust he was experiencing now. That utter corruption of consciousness.
I looked at Caroline. Her undead ass had run away from the building the moment Aiden had thrown the demon against it. She watched the battle at a safe distance, away from the cabin which looked ready to crumble at any moment. I slowly dragged myself up. Time to test how much I can stretch the soul bond. Taking advantage of Caroline’s distracted state, I sneaked into the cabin, hoping it didn’t crash down with me inside. I shrugged on the jacket and boots I had stolen from the dead guard, and entered through the backdoor, the jacket barely warming me. I needed to find a phone ASAP, preferably one that wasn’t locked to outside calls.
I bee lined for Caroline’s bedroom, hopefully one of them had left it behind when they were putting on their clothes in a hurry. The room smelled of sweat and sex. I rifled through the clothes. There were only the guard issued communication devices, pretty much super advanced walkie-talkies. There was no other phone in the room. The only place a normal phone could be would be on Caroline. Unfortunately, pickpocketing wasn’t one of my talents.
Looks like the only way was to help Aiden kill the demon and use him as a shield to kill Caroline. Solid plan. Ten out of ten. I mocked myself miserably.
I ransacked the other rooms. Hopefully, they had some weapons lying around, maybe a stake or two. Was that too much to ask for?
By the time I reached back, the dragon was panting, half a dozen gashes etched on its face. The gashes were healing but slowly. How much damage had she already caused for his powers to slow down?
The demon wasn’t faring much better, there were cracks on her skull. Parts of her scales had been ripped off around her stomach. Luminescent skin, like pearl, shone under it. Vulnerable.
Caroline shook her head disappointed and turned away, spotting me right as I was getting near the battle field. Eyes widening at the amount of weapons I was packing. One blink and the vampire was in front of me. Golden fangs gleamed in the moonlight as she reached for me with a snarl. I ducked and swerved, coming up right behind her, and ramming my enchanted dagger right into her nape.
She swayed forward, blood gurgling out of her. The only measly advantage I had over her was that I was trained in combat and she wasn’t. But, I didn’t know how much it would help me against her vampire strength and speed.
She spun around, rage glazing her eyes, blood dripped out of her neck where the tip of the dagger stuck out like a bad Halloween costume. Before she could reach for me, I swiped my legs under her, toppling her off balance. I took another dagger from my boots and stabbed her chest again and again. She howled in pain, letting go off the scroll as she scrambled to protect her heart. I reached forward to grab her scroll but before I could, she grabbed my hips and threw me back like a ragdoll. I slammed against a half burnt tree trunk; splinters flew off, some embedding themselves on my arms and back. My ears rung in pain, the impact shaking my entire body and my vision wavered. My back muscles spasmed as pain consumed me.
Caroline was still whimpering on the ground. I stood up; I couldn’t let the pain defeat me, not now. I needed to get that scroll. I may not know how to use it but at least she won’t be able to unleash the demon’s full power if she didn’t have it. I took another dagger and trudged towards her, barely keeping upright as the world spun around me.
Before she could see me creeping from behind, I bent down to grab the scroll. She turned at the last moment and kicked me from the ground. I felt my rib break from the impact. I wheezed as the breath got knocked out of me. Stepping forward I caught hold of her left ankle, and slashed the tendon. She jerked to a pause from the pain, as her body slowly registered that her left ankle had become useless.
“You bitch,” she screamed, words slurred from the knife still sticking out of her throat. She rolled to the side, lunging forward on her other leg, and stabbed me. Reflex pulled my body back before my brain registered the threat, but I wasn’t fast enough. The dagger that had been previously embedded into her chest was now embedded in my stomach. I stared at the dagger sticking out of stomach calmly. Maybe it was the shock or maybe it was because I was so much past the thresh hold of pain that my brain wasn’t able to process anything.
Caroline grinned at me, wide, like she had won an award, her own pain forgotten at the sight of my blood. She licked her lips.
“Not today darling,” I reached behind my back, to the enchanted dagger hidden in waistband of my jeans and slammed it into her right eye.
Caroline reeled back in shock. Trying to move the knife brought on even more pain. She knelt on the ground, unable to pull it out but unable to leave it on either. She glared at me with one eye, tears clouding her eyes, fangs puncturing her own lips as she struggled to cope with the pain.
“It isn’t so much fun
being on the other side is it? Look at you, all ready to cry. You were so excited to have Aiden be tortured.”
She glared at me through her one good eye. My body was slowly starting to register the pain again. Laughter bubbled up in me, hysterical laughter coated in pain. It was a miracle I was still standing upright.
“I will never let a mongrel like you win against my lord. He will reign supreme and I will be his queen,” Caroline ripped away the seal on the scroll.
“No,” I lunged forward but I was too late. The seal was undone. The black smoke that had been encircling the scroll disappeared. She had just cut off the metaphorical leash on the demon. There was nothing limiting its power now.
I gulped.
“Rot in hell,” she said as she lay on the ground laughing and crying in pain.
I looked back, the demon had disappeared right in front of my eyes, vanishing mid fight. The dragon looked from side to side.
“Above you,” I screamed.
She appeared two feet above him and plunged down, head first, arm extended forward. Within seconds there was a fireball forming inside her palm, larger than her, hundreds of arrows made of black smoke circled around her, all aiming for Aiden, right for that vulnerable spot behind the neck where scales were sparse.
And he had no way of avoiding it.
Chapter 30
The demon’s magic collided with his body, searing his skin, shattering his bones.
The demon stood atop his still body, like a victorious general. I could see his skin trying to knit together at the side of his neck and wings where the flame arrows had sliced through. But the black smoke kept tearing it open. It had slithered under his skin through the open wound, tearing apart his muscles and tendons from the inside. Smell of burned flesh permeated the air. He lay motionless in a pool of his own blood, as the dancing flames and swirling smoke kept him pinned to ground.
But, I was still standing. That meant he was still alive. There was still hope. I glanced back. Caroline had fled the moment I had turned away. The scroll that had leashed the demon had fluttered to the ground, the ink smearing from the wetness of the ground. There was no fixing it.
For the first time in my life, I couldn’t come up with a plan where I came out alive. I stared dumbly at the wreckage in front of me, unable to think a way out of this for us.
This was the end. I looked down at the enchanted dagger still sticking out of my stomach. There was one way but even if I succeeded in stopping the demon, I wasn’t coming out of this alive, nor was Aiden. Had the fates had this scenario in mind when they had bound us? Was I born to kill him?
The cautious part of me wanted to wait till I formed a plan; one that involved both of us getting out alive. But deep inside I knew it was impossible, I could feel the bond straining, he was using every last ounce of his power to heal himself, to keep us both alive.
I gripped the handle of the enchanted dagger and pulled it out of my stomach, almost falling to my feet at the wave of pain. I gritted my teeth and tore a t-shirt from one of the dead guards and tied it tight around my wound to slow down the bleeding. I tucked the dagger behind me, the waistband of my jeans holding it secure. I only had a few minutes before the blood loss killed me.
I walked towards them, Aiden was groaning, half unconscious as his power fought to banish the black smoke from inside his body. With her standing on top of him, he couldn’t even call on lightning to kill her.
I climbed on him and walked towards where she was standing. She was straining from the effort required to keep Aiden down. Her body shook as she called on more and more of her magic. She saw me but ignored me, commanding a minor fraction of her power to take care of me. The moment I had lost Aiden’s powers she had stopped considering me a threat. Against the ocean that was her power, I wasn’t even a drop of water.
Black smoke escaped out of Aiden and wrapped around my thigh, at her command, eating me from inside out. The world had tinged black in pain but I took another step forward and then another. More smoke circled me.
“I am sorry Aiden,” I whispered.
It happened simultaneously.
My dagger pierced her ribs, where Aiden had destroyed her protective scales, just as she turned. My enchanted dagger went through her luminescent flesh, the nullifying effect of it not letting her heal; black blood coated the sharp metal.
Her claws pierced my heart.
I hiccupped, blood gurgling out of me. With my dying strength, I broke her cracked horn and plunged it into her heart, her horn easily piercing her scales. She caught hold of my hand and in one snap broke it into two. I screamed in agony. My bones had broken and pierced through my skin.
“Die, demon!” With my unbroken hand I pulled the horn out of her heart and stabbed her again and again, my aim faltering from pain but still making contact with her torso.
She swaggered back, body bowed in pain, and fell off of Aiden. The black smoke flew back to her, hovering around her protectively as she pulled the horn out. But the damage was already done.
“Lightning, now,” I shouted, words slurred by the blood gurgling out of my mouth. My knees gave and I fell to the other side, just as hundreds of lightning bolts hit the ground, exactly, where the demon lay.
Aiden placed his wing over me and curled me close to his body, shielding me.
It was all over in a second. I lay in terrifying darkness under his wings as the bright light from the lightning disappeared.
“Did she die?”
Aiden grunted. I took that as a yes.
‘We did it,” I said, still cocooned inside his wings.
My heartbeat slowed. Blood filled my lungs. It was true what they said about Kshara. We really are the cursed ones.
“Aiden,” I coughed. There was no response.
“If we ever survive this,” blood choked my breath, “I promise you, I’ll find a way to free you from me forever.”
I pressed my palm against his battle wounded body and closed my eyes.
Death welcomed me like an old friend.
Chapter 31
Everything was white.
My throat was scratchy, like someone had stuffed a bag of wool down there. I could barely move my body. It felt like I was awakening from hundred years of slumber. Pins and needles shot down my legs when I tried to move it. My voice came out broken and scratchy, like someone had put it through a grinder. Was I dead? I hadn’t expected the afterlife to be this uncomfortable.
“Pumpkin? Are you awake?”
Did dad also die? What was he doing here?
It was hard to focus, everything was blurry but I could see tubes running in and out of my body.
That was the last thing I remembered before I lost consciousness.
I did not know how many times I woke up and fainted again. Every moment was blurring with the next. Some moments I thought I saw dad, other moments I saw Bart and Max. At one point, my feverish mind even thought I saw the dragon king staring at me.
When I could finally keep my eyes open for more than a few minutes, I noticed the bland walls of the hospital around me.
Was I not dead?
Dad took my palm between his; eyes wet. He pressed his face into my palm and for the first time in my life I saw my dad cry.
“Da…” I tried to call. But my voice was barely audible even to my own ears.
“Dad,” I tried again.
‘Yes, pumpkin?” dad wiped away his tears.
“D…don’t cry.”
‘These are happy tears” he pressed a kiss on my palm.
“Mom?” I whispered.
“She was here a few days back but she got called for a mission,” his tone went inflectionless like it did when he lied.
I looked away. Maybe, I will get to see her next year.
“Wh…what happened?” I managed to croak out.
“You tell me. We followed the fire and lightning and found you two surrounded by a fried demon and my own guards. I thought you had died pumpkin. You’ve been lying like
this for two weeks. I thought I had lost you. Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
“Aiden?” I somehow managed to whisper his name. My voice failed at the last syllable, my throat giving up.
“He is fine. We found him unconscious near the dead guards.”
He must’ve shifted back into his human form and tried to cover himself with a dead guard’s clothes, losing consciousness in the process. Dad didn’t sound like he knew Aiden was an Aether dragon. I internally sighed in relief. At least his secret was safe from everyone.
I stared at dad. He got the hint and nodded towards my other side. I slowly turned my head; moving now was harder than fighting a demon. I couldn’t fully turn my head but I saw Aiden on a hospital bed, just a feet away from me. Only difference was, he was still unconscious and breathing through a tube.
“The doctors said the soul bond is the reason you are alive. He poured all of his power through the bond to heal you. The doctors said he had kept the bare amount of magic in him, enough to keep his heart beating, enough to keep you alive.”
I wanted to ask when he would wake up but my voice wouldn’t come out. Dad understood my unasked question.
Dad voice was grim when he answered, “The doctors don’t have any hope that he will wake up. The only thing we can do now is wait. Since the soul bonding is complete, you won’t have to stay here, just visit him once a day for a while to avoid straining the bond.”
He was never going to wake up…
“I will call the nurse. Bart will come over later to write the report. We got the scrolls from your pockets, but rain had completely destroyed it, I have asked some specialists to look into it, to see how much they could salvage. It’s our last clue. Someone had emptied the place out by the time we reached. But you don’t need to worry about any of that pumpkin. Rest. I have a meeting now, I will come visit you later.” He pecked my forehead and left. I couldn’t feel anything from the numbness that was spreading through me.