“Yeah, yeah,” she said.
Kristen continued to scoot through the smoke. She thought she moved back down the alley through which they’d come, but with the smoke and flash, it was hard to tell. She was disoriented and honestly, she didn’t really want to move away from the action.
More airsoft shots chattered, followed by another curse, although this one was much more good-natured.
“All right, all right, I see how it is. I’m not gonna lie, that wasn’t bad for humans. It never would’ve worked for real, but you do know how to play the game,” Emerald said.
More gunshots followed and Beanpole yelped. A dragon had obviously shot him. It had become five against three.
Another pop song blared, this one without words and only the beat and screaming synthesizers over the top of it.
Kristen pushed herself to her feet and Lumos collided with her.
“You’re still alive?” the ancient gold dragon asked her. A surreal question, to be sure.
“Yeah.”
“I thought so. Your aura doesn’t have any offense in it yet. This way. Stonequest and I will eliminate these little whelps.” There was so much to be said for one’s tone of voice. He didn’t sound angry at all and was merely trash-talking in a fight. She found that she liked the old dragon more and more. He was wise, capable, and patient. She missed Timeflash—the other member of Stonequest’s team—but she was away in Australia on other business. Her powers were unique and therefore sometimes needed at the far corners of the globe. Kristen wondered if that was her own future. There were no other dragons with steel skin. As far as she knew, there hadn’t been a dragon like her before.
Lumos put a hand on her shoulder and she snapped back to the moment. She followed him to a corridor where Stonequest waited.
“Steel, you’re alive. Hell yes.”
“Hell yes, sir.” She grinned.
“This way circles to put us behind them. We’ll give chase but watch our feet. If we don’t step on any mines, we should be good. Our speed and reflexes are faster than theirs.”
“It sounds like a plan, sir,” Lumos agreed.
“Right,” Kristen said and didn’t bother to say that there was no way Hernandez had managed to make another mine, let alone more than one.
They raced forward in silence and burst into another tunnel, then stopped when they realized they were behind some of the human SWAT team members.
“They found us. Move, move, move!” Drew yelled. He was the farthest away, and—being the tallest of the humans—provided cover fire over the top of their heads while the others hastily retreated.
Not all were fast enough, though. Before Kristen flung herself into cover, she fired a few shots and managed to hit Keith in the back.
He fell—a caricature of someone shot—and landed untidily, laughing like an idiot. For someone who cared so much about his online presence, he could be seriously dumb about stuff like that. A video of a cop laughing about someone being shot—even during an airsoft game—could very easily end someone’s career.
The dragons didn’t hit any of the others, though. Hernandez and the Wonderkid made it past Drew, and he followed them around a corner.
“They’ll try to keep near the center,” Lumos shouted over the music as the three dragons gave chase. “If they go near the edges, there will be fewer paths for them to follow.”
“Don’t let them get away,” Stonequest said, drew on his dragon speed, and moved even faster. They rounded the bend to see another long, straight passage that opened into a number of others before it came to a dead end. Jim stood at the far side of the passage before them, both hands on his airsoft pistol. As soon as Lumos came into view, he began to fire.
He’d miscalculated as airsoft pistols didn’t have the kind of power that rifles did. Lumos was able to avoid the flying pellets as easily as if they were big, clunky dodgeballs instead of tiny projectiles. He raced toward the Wonderkid and moved closer and closer while he dodged every pellet fired at him.
Entirely focused on his quarry, he didn’t register the gunfire from one of the side passages until the pellets struck him in the ribs.
Lumos slowed to a halt and looked over his shoulder at his teammates. “Well, I’ll be damned. They tricked me.”
Butters’ low, bubbling chuckle came from one of the side branches. She knew they’d held the sniper in reserve. Even though he had to use a pistol like the rest of them, he still had the skill required to set a trap and seize the opportunity.
“Well, I guess it’s only you and me,” Stonequest said to Kristen over the blaring pop music.
“You, me, and four humans,” she replied.
“We target the sniper first.”
She nodded.
Together, they raced down the passage toward Jim. He fired a few times at them but wasn’t able to dodge like they could so had to tuck out of sight when they fired at him. She spun into the doorway the shots had come and stopped short. Butters stood with his hands up. It wasn’t a passage, after all, but a dead end.
He wouldn’t have put himself in such an obvious position unless— Shots rang out from behind her. While they were barely audible over the music, they were familiar enough to alert her and her hearing identified them with little difficulty. She assumed that Heartsbane had been right about her senses, after all.
It was a damn close thing, but she managed to fling herself aside in time. The pellets rocketed past her and hit Butters in the gut.
“Ya got me! Ya yankee dragons got me shot by my own kind,” he said and clutched his stomach dramatically. Then, he shrugged. “I’ll go check the barbecue.” He liked airsoft but compared to his teammates, it simply wasn’t a priority and definitely not with smoked meat on the menu.
“Not before I do!” Lumos yelled from the other corridor.
“Three left,” Stonequest said, still obviously very much committed to the game.
“Let’s go,” Kristen responded.
They jogged down the passage toward where Jim had been.
“Do you smell that?” he asked when they paused in another empty part of the course.
“Something stinks.”
“It must be your friend who made the mine.”
She nodded and realized that the other dragons’ senses really were more sensitive than hers. It was something to work on.
“This way,” he said and followed his nose.
Kristen obeyed, and the two of them snaked down a few passages. After a half a minute of silent pursuit—except for the music that now sang about California thighs with Mexican hair—they located the human team.
Jim was again at the end of the corridor, ready to fire.
“It’s another trap,” she was about to say, but she didn’t bother. Stonequest had already raced forward, dodging their opponent’s pellets easily. She had recognized the tactic—it was obvious, really—and maybe she should have tried harder to say something. A part of her thought it might be best if the humans won. After all, dragons were incredibly arrogant, and that didn’t bode well for human-dragon relations. Plus, there was a group of people out there who had actually killed a dragon. They needed to be confronted by humans who could show them that they weren’t a lesser species but a force to be reckoned with.
Although that didn’t mean she would let them win either. Dragon SWAT would be forced to admit that she was talented if she defeated the human SWAT team when the other the dragons were eliminated. It would demonstrate the fundamental concept of know thy enemy. If dragons really faced a cabal of humans who wanted to kill them, they needed to know humans in a way they simply didn’t.
She followed Stonequest down the passage and went so far as to shoot at the human as well. It looked like her half-hope of the humans beating dragon kind wouldn’t come to fruition because her dragon teammate shot Jim in the gut.
The Wonderkid—ever the politician—smiled and dropped his weapon. “Good game, Stonequest.” He stuck a hand out to shake.
The dragon
, confused but honorable as well, paused, shifted his pistol to his off-hand, and extended his hand.
Without warning, Drew darted out of another tunnel and shot him.
Jim began to laugh so hard that Kristen thought he might genuinely pee his pants.
“That’s bullshit!” Stonequest growled and his aura reflected his frustration. “You offered to shake!”
“In the middle of a fight. Come on, man. Really?” Jim sputtered between bouts of laughter. “Is that what you do when you face another dragon? Simply stop and shake hands?”
“You know I wouldn’t have fallen for it if it wasn’t you, right? Steel always says you’re the goodie-goodie,” Stonequest said. Despite losing, his mood didn’t seem to have soured too much. He must have recognized that falling for a handshake had been particularly foolish of him.
“Come on, let’s go,” the Wonderkid said.
“Are you kidding me? I want to see the end of this.” He stepped out of the path between Drew and Kristen.
“I learned a few things from you, Steel Dragon,” her old boss said and picked up a piece of plywood in his left hand.
She responded by firing her pistol at him. He blocked the pellets with the wood and she smiled. He’d definitely learned that from her.
Before he could return fire, she rushed forward. “I know Hernandez will throw firecrackers or some shit at me, Drew, which simply means I have to beat you before—”
The plywood wall beside her fell and thrust her into the opposite wall.
Her reflexes kicked in and she shoved it off without falling. It collapsed entirely and Hernandez groaned from under it.
“You blew your load early.” Kristen turned to Drew but it was too late.
He’d already fired a dozen shots at her and had been careful enough to aim all over her entire body, not only her chest. Although she was able to dodge the first few pellets, that only moved her into the path of the others.
“Dance, dragon!” Jim hooted, even though he was already out.
The pellets found their target. She’d lost. That meant Drew and the humans had actually won.
“Good game,” he said with a broad grin, way too proud of himself.
“Are you ready for that handshake now?” Jim asked Stonequest.
“In your dreams, human,” the dragon replied and slapped him across the back instead. The two laughed. It seemed that some friendships had been made in the battle.
Drew fired his pistol in the air three times, and the pop music—thank God—stopped.
Together, human and dragon wandered toward the exit of the course. It was a nice moment until yelling became audible from outside the arena. She looked at Stonequest, who also looked concerned.
The group paused to listen but a massive pillar of flame blazed into the sky.
Concern overcame curiosity and, as one, they raced to the exit.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Outside the arena, a dragon the color of ivory and beautiful in her rage screamed at the humans before her. “You may have won this stupid game, but that proves nothing. You had to cheat to beat us. And besides. This is the foe you would truly have to defeat.”
“Fuck off, you big lizard,” Hernandez said as soon as she emerged from the course and before she could see what was happening, even though she wasn’t part of whatever had started the argument.
Heartsbane turned to the woman and spread her huge white wings. “I could incinerate you without even trying. This is the true threat of our kind. You using mines is like us becoming this.”
Lumos—still in human form—ran between the two adversaries.
“There was nothing said about using other tools to win,” he said and held his hands up in a placating gesture. “We said pistols and no transformations. We didn’t say what else was or wasn’t allowed and definitely nothing about mines or bad music. The humans beat us in this game, fair and square.”
“I’m only saying it was a game, is all,” Heartsbane snapped.
“Yeah, no shit it was a—” Hernandez started to shout but Keith ran over, threw an arm around her shoulder, and dragged her away.
Without the pop music blaring, Kristen could hear better than she’d realized. Right now, she could hear him telling her that he’d said Heartsbane stank from the bomb and that had set her off. There was no reason to make her even more angry at Hernandez. In response, she laughed.
Heartsbane transformed into her human form and the dragon mediator relaxed. She strode over to a table and sat to redo her hair in a huff.
“I will say this about dragon kind,” Butters shouted with a full mouth. “You know how to smoke a pork shoulder.”
Lumos frowned and marched back toward the grill. “That wasn’t ready yet.”
“Nonsense. It’s fine.”
“The center might still be tough.”
“Might? I feel like you should know whether it is or it isn’t, don’t you think? Besides, it’s time to eat. If the meat’s not ready, you really don’t know what you’re doing.”+
The low-stakes argument and smell of the food lured all the combatants over to the grill. While Butters and Lumos argued the proper resting time, everyone else piled their plates with coleslaw and buns. There was nothing like a springtime barbecue to bring people together, Kristen thought.
She was about to head over and join them when she felt Stonequest’s aura tug at hers.
Startled, she turned to him and he gestured for her join him at a table. She approached and sat.
“I’m sorry we lost,” she lied, knowing full well that he could see through it. “I thought Hernandez would have another explosive ready.”
He waved off the phony apology for what it was.
“It’s fine. Really, I wanted to thank you again. Setting this up was a really good idea. We need to think of our two teams as allies, not competitors, and this was a good exercise for my people.”
“Oh yeah? I thought you might be bitter about losing to humans,” she replied.
Stonequest shook his head and snorted. “This style of fighting isn’t something we’ll ever have to do in the field. It’s far more likely that we’ll have to engage in dragon to dragon battles, which we practice all the time. This kind of activity is good to get us out of our comfort zone—like go-kart racing, or mini-golf.”
Kristen could tell from his aura that he wasn’t worried at all, which she found kind of annoying. “Fair enough. Human police have to train for gunfights all the time, so it makes sense that they won, even without dragon abilities.” If the dig bothered him, he didn’t show it. “But don’t you think that with dragon-based ammunition in the hands of people it might be worth Dragon SWAT’s time to practice with handguns in human form more often?”
Stonequest’s aura shifted from relaxed to uncomfortable, even though his posture didn’t change at all. Sometimes, it was odd communicating with a dragon in human form—definitely odder than talking to one while they were in dragon form. “I still have doubts about the conclusions you drew from that case.”
“Conclusions I drew? We have the fights on camera. A human killed a dragon with a handgun. Period. The only way I was able to stop her from killing another dragon was by using my human form. A dragon body presents too big a target.”
“Maybe you have a point there, but let’s look at the evidence. We found no trace of any of the bullets, which makes determining how it was done almost impossible.”
“But we know it was a human.” She had argued this point so many times and yet he still routinely dismissed it.
“I simply don’t see how a human could have made a bullet that can kill dragons and then vanish. It’s ridiculous. There has to be another explanation. We simply haven’t found it yet. It would be more realistic to think that they obtained it from a dragon.” Maybe he was named Stonequest not only for his stony appearance in his dragon form but also for his impossible stubbornness.
“Is it as unbelievable as a team of humans defeating a team of dragons in a ta
ctical exercise?” she said, unable to help herself.
“Come on, Kristen. Your human friends obviously explored this arena beforehand, buried that mine, and studied the layout. This hardly counts.”
Kristen looked at her friends, both dragon and human. They’d given up on waiting for the pork shoulder and carved into it to pack their buns with smoked meat. Butters nodded appreciatively. Hernandez and Heartsbane seemed engaged in some kind of a shit-talking competition. The others sat at a table and talked amicably enough.
“Stonequest, even a month ago, this would have been impossible. There are vast rifts between human and dragon culture. I think you might not fully understand how much humanity has grown in the last hundred years. Think about it—electricity, cars, TV, assault weapons. Things will not continue as they have always been.”
“Do you really think you’re the first person to talk this way? I remember that during the Renaissance, people spoke in the same terms. Telescopes and other technological breakthroughs came along but didn’t change much.” Stonequest yawned.
“The Renaissance did change everything, but things are poised to change even more now. Think about this. Dragons are used to being virtually invulnerable. Your kind—”
“Our kind,” he interjected.
She thought it was annoying to quibble with her about her own identity during an argument but her point still needed to be made. “Sure, you’re right. Our kind. Our kind is used to being invulnerable. But that strength can be a serious weakness. Look at my steel skin. I began to rely on it and that proved to be disastrous. Not only did Shadowstorm realize tasers were effective against me but now, these bullets can cut right through the steel.”
“But it was a dragon who figured that out.” Why was he being so stubborn? Was he really this adverse to change or was it simply too hard to process? Kristen didn’t know exactly how long he had been alive but since before the Renaissance, apparently. Her own dad got stressed when he went to a different pizza place than his usual one, and he was in his sixties. Maybe dragons had a kind of crisis of thought caused by their old age.
The Steel Dragon (Steel Dragons Series Book 2) Page 22