by Jadyn Chase
“Eli….,” she began.
I couldn’t listen anymore. I darted in and kissed her. Christ, I needed to kiss her! What was I thinking, pretending I could live without her? I ran my fingers through her hair, and when I looked down, Christopher gazed up at me with teary eyes. I rumpled his hair and smiled at him. My son.
“I don’t want to leave you, Eli,” Ruby whimpered. “I’m…. I’m scared.”
I cupped her face. Fuck, her lips tasted so good! “You have to go. Listen to me, Ruby. About twenty more dragons are gonna be here any second. You have to get out of here. Take care of Christopher for me. Whatever happens, promise me you’ll take care of him.”
Her mouth said, I promise, but no sound came out. Her tears broke free and streamed down her cheeks. She threw her arms around me and kissed me back.
I had to pry her arms off to make her let go. Her heart beat against mine, if only for a second. I could live with that. I could face death holding onto that tiny, fragile gift.
I weaseled out of her grasp and stood her up. Christopher got to his feet, but he refused to let go of her. I took one more look around searching for a way out of this. There was only one way.
I turned to her. “I’m going to shift now. When I do, you need to hide behind me and let me take the heat. I’ll protect you, and once you get outside, just keep on running. Understand?”
Her eyes screwed up with fear again, but she nodded like a trooper. There was no other way these two could get out of the building alive.
I didn’t hesitate. I shifted again and turned my back to them. I spread my wings and solidified my resolve. One way or the other, Ruby and Christopher were going to live. I didn’t care who else had to die to make that happen. Ruby and Christopher were going to live.
I lowered my head into the flames aiming for a weak portion of the nearest wall. One warped beam held up a pile of burning timber. It dropped flaming sticks of glowing coals to the floor.
I ducked under it and braced the support under my shoulder. I extended my wings and basked in the delicious heat that was beginning to sear my scales. The post dug its gnarled spikes into my flesh, but I refused to give in. I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath. The building could crush me before I would let it fall.
From a great distance, I heard Ruby scream. “Come on, Christopher! Come on!”
She darted under me, covering him with her body. They scurried past my wings and vanished into the night. The metal stabbed deeper. Now it started to hurt. I cracked one eye open. The fire revealed two microscopic figures racing away. The desert swallowed them up, never to be seen again.
I jumped out from under the beam and it collapsed next to me. Sparks and embers burst into the black firmament, but I’d done my job. Ruby and Christopher were free. The Furies would find Logan and me here. Then it would be all on, but they would never go after Ruby and Christopher again. I made up my mind on that.
I stayed where I was, and Logan waited at my side. We observed the flames consuming the building listening to those wingbeats coming closer all the time.
They didn’t land inside the building. There wasn’t room for more than the two of us. A shadow hurtled out of the stars and took up a position beyond the wall. Two eyes gleamed red against the desert. Then another appeared.
I rotated around to scan them all—twenty, just like I expected. The odds didn’t look so good now, but that didn’t mean anything. Logan sidestepped and bumped into me. We moved back to back to confront our enemies.
How long would they linger out there before they struck? My nerves itched to fight them, but the longer they delayed, the better Ruby and Christopher’s chances of escape. I could wait a hundred years if that was what it took.
The Furies wouldn’t wait a hundred years, though. They wouldn’t even wait fifteen minutes. One set of eyes out there bobbed to one side in a menacing way. That must be the leader. It might be Alfonzo, but I couldn’t be certain. Whoever it was would be the first to attack. The others would wait for his signal before they launched.
I coiled my legs under me to meet that assault. I narrowed my eyes on him alone. I dwarfed little old Logan, so they’d send their biggest and strongest against me. Whoever won that fight would probably take the battle regardless of how many foot soldiers he had pecking at his heels. If I could hopefully take this fucker out, they would run for the hills.
I couldn’t see him well through the flames, so I couldn’t gauge how big he really was. He might not be very big if he hesitated like this.
All at once, with no warning, he streaked through the flames charging straight at me. He shattered the remains of the wall and sent planks and steel flying. The rubble bounced off his scales and lit up the night.
He plunged through the wreckage snapping for my throat, but I prepared myself for this moment. I leaped upward and launched over his head. I beat my wings, but only once. I descended behind him outside the wall and took his place between his two comrades on either side.
The leader whipped around screeching in frustrated rage. The other two flanking me took a moment to realize what happened. In that brief hiatus, I played my advantage. I spun right and fell on the nearest dragon ripping and shredding with a vengeance.
In the blink of an eye, I laid open his flank and left him crippled. His comrade wheeled to come up behind me, but I danced out of the way. The leader howled his wrath inside the building. Now he had to fight his way back through the wall to get at me.
In a fraction of a second, all The Furies realized what I was doing and converged for the kill. I sprang at the second dragon, but only to feint. He jumped clear to avoid my teeth and I took wing. I fluttered over the fire for a second and alighted one more time in my old place inside the walls.
When I first surprised these idiots with that play, Logan copied me. He hopped out of the fire and came to rest among the attackers gathered around the perimeter. Now that I flew back inside, he laid into them with venomous ferocity to stop them following me. That left me free to face off against their boss.
The flames illuminated the leader, all fifty feet of gleaming burnished gold. He stalked around to confront me. His tail slithered through crimson embers and molten steel. His eyes flickered, reflecting the inferno that fed him and strengthened him the same way it did me.
He rumbled low in his throat to threaten me. Bring it on, homeboy. I sure as hell didn’t come out here at ten o’clock at night to parlay.
Now I could see just how much bigger and more powerful than me he really was. I better think of some rabbit to pull out of my hat pretty quick or I was a dead man. He knew it, too. He strutted back and forth dragging his body from one side to another to show himself off to me. That made a much more effective threat than any guttural growl.
Outside the walls, snarling, spitting, and screaming heralded Logan’s fight against the rest of the pack. I couldn’t take my eyes off my opponent long enough to see how Logan was doing. I wished I could help him out there, but I faced an uphill battle taking this cocksucker to task. That was the best help I could give Logan right now.
I prepared myself for the worst, and it came before I expected. My enemy could rely on all the advantages of weight and size. He didn’t need to parade around and he didn’t bother. On his second pass, he lashed his tail and made me jump. In seconds, he rocketed at me so fast the hot wind sang on his scales.
I saw my chance. I flexed my wings and, instead of landing to engage with him, I beat them in a circular pattern. I picked up broken glass and loose fragments and burning splinters in a swirling tornado and fired them at the dragon as hard as my wings could pump.
For a desperado who came here expecting a dragon battle, he proved surprisingly stupid. Like most big and stupid guys, he expected a fight of strength against strength. He didn’t plan to use his brain because he didn’t have one to use. I took him completely off guard by not playing into his hand.
He crouched, squinting his eyes half-closed to protect himself from the onslaug
ht. I’ll admit the success surprised me, too. I didn’t expect it to disconcert him so much. I didn’t follow it up the way I should have, but it gave me a few more ideas. A dragon that size couldn’t move fast on the wing.
I hovered several feet off the ground and observed him cringing below me. He didn’t look so big now.
When the tempest died, he pried back his head and glared at me. He bared his teeth and snarled, but I didn’t land. Why should I? Why should I deliberately put myself at a disadvantage?
He narrowed his eyes, judging the distance to my suspended form. I observed the wheels turning in his plug head. He formulated thoughts so slowly I could see them fitting together, one puzzle piece at a time.
He tensed his muscles for the attack. Fuck, he was slow. Every move he made unfolded in geologic time. I kept my position above him. That alone made me dominant over him.
All at once, he darted his head forward. Once he got it moving, his neck muscles made it streak through the air quicker than thought, but I prepared even for that. I danced to my right and took off flying around the building. I angled toward the wall and knocked loose a beam with my wing.
The burning shaft teetered and spun off its perch straight into the dragon’s head. It cracked him across the eyebrow, scattering sparks and coals across his skin. He screamed and flinched to pull away, but I didn’t stop.
I zoomed around the building snatching every loose bit of burning rubble from the crumbling walls. I hurled them at him one after the other until he shrank into a huddled mass on the floor. I shrieked my challenge to him, but I never stopped anywhere long enough for him to maneuver.
While this went on, more spine-chilling shrieks echoed beyond the flames. I didn’t have time to check on Logan. I only hoped I could defeat this bastard in time to save my friend.
Just then, another deep groan broke above the din. I bashed another smoldering truss at my enemy. It ricocheted off his shoulder and clanged against the concrete. When it did, that groaning noise barked louder than ever before it subsided. What was it?
I considered on the wing. I didn’t dare stop, but I had to find some way to turn this fight once and for all. I couldn’t go on dancing around playing silly sausage.
The groaning got louder. I paused in my flight just for a second and the dragon pivoted on the ground to keep me in sight. When he took a step, I detected a barely perceptible sag where his foot met the floor. Of course! How could I miss this?
I flapped to a halt and peered down at him. I got away with harassing him, but that couldn’t last. This business had to come to a full-blown, knock-down-drag-out fight sooner or later.
The instant I stopped, he advanced to close the deal. He arched his neck back and wove his head from side to side. That was his little way of letting me know he meant business. Everything that happened before now was just playtime.
I eased a few feet closer. That’s right, you mutton-headed relic. Just a little closer. He reared on his hind legs and extended his wings. He sized me up and found me wanting. Oh, yeah. He made underestimating his opponent his life’s freakin’ work.
I teased him a tiny bit more by hovering before his eyes. He opened his mouth. Down deep in his throat, the first coil of fire bubbled and roiled ready to torch me alive. An undulating surge of motion translated up his neck, and he hurtled at me screaming bloody murder.
I tilted and dropped at the same instant, but I didn’t try to attack him. That would be suicide. I zipped under his chin and his jaws whistled over my head. At the same time, a devastating spurt of flame erupted out of his mouth and splintered the sagging metal frame behind me.
I didn’t wait around to see any more. I plunged down his tall belly and pounded all my weight into the concrete around his feet. The floor creaked and groaned. The dragon tottered for a second trying to wrap his pea brain around what was happening to him.
The next instant, the floor collapsed. It imploded into the subspace below him and he tumbled headlong into the dark. He flailed his wings and shrieked to the Heavens, but no one heard him, not even me.
The moment I felt the floor give way, I wrenched around sideways and seized a broken steel joist lying nearby. The explosive force of me breaking through the roof twisted and tore it. One razor-sharp corner jutted out and formed a dangerous spike ending in a pinpoint.
I clutched it in one claw and somersaulted back the other way. The dragon surged out of the hole in a desperate effort to free himself. I rolled over in the air and swung the girder at his throat. The edge caught him under the chin and his scales separated.
The next time he pitched backward to get away, his head flopped one direction and his body jerked the other. For one terrible second, his monstrous struggling motions kept pounding the walls of his prison with catastrophic force.
I dropped my weapon and drew off to watch the upshot of my trick. If this didn’t work, I couldn’t think what I would try next. Whatever it was would have to be pretty spectacular to defeat an enemy like him.
He raged and crashed to the ends of the Earth. He hurled his massive body against the floor. He tried to spread his wings and got caught in the hole, or basement, or whatever it was.
I blinked down at him. Only then did I notice his head dangling down parallel with his neck. A thin flap of muscle and skin held it on. The upside-down eyes stared at nothing and blood gurgled from the wound.
The body kept up its mindless fight for a few more minutes, but it couldn’t get out of that hole. All at once, he flumped onto the floor. The neck slapped down on the concrete and the head bounced to rest. The hindquarters and wings drooped into the pit and the whole mass lay still. I lingered there for a long time. He really was dead. The fight was over.
13
Eli
A deafening scream jolted me out of my trance. I looked to one side to see Logan buried under seven dragons with others waiting their turn. I streaked through the fire and pounced on the first one I found. I burrowed into the mound slashing and snarling my fury at these upstarts.
I uncovered Logan and flung the last attackers clear. He staggered to his feet and we swiveled back to back to confront them. The Furies measured us for a minute. Then some of them happened to glance behind them at their massive leader lying headless and very dead among the flames.
That’s right, assholes. Take a good, long look, ‘cuz that’s what I have in mind for all of you. My rage and triumph exploded out of me in a torrent. I roared at them and sprayed fire in a sweeping circle to blast in their faces.
They retreated before the onslaught and a few took wing. I got my fury under control with an effort and glared at those that remained. I dared any of them to take me on. Logan shrieked, too, and the circle widened a little more. The Furies pulled away one step at a time and left us standing there together.
A few more withdrew until only five or six stragglers threatened us. Logan and I shifted our feet to keep them in sight, but they didn’t attack. Of course they didn’t. They couldn’t hope to win with so few. At last, they launched and flew away.
I peered into the starry sky where they disappeared. Just then, a thump made me turn around. I jumped when I found Logan collapsed on his side. His ribs heaved and his eyes drifted half-closed.
I shifted in a flash and crouched over him. One leg bent at the wrong angle and innumerable gashes oozed blood from his sides and face. What a fighter. He held up under all that and gave me the opening I needed to defeat The Furies’ leader.
I touched his cheek and he changed under my hand. The spikes receded on his back and his scales vanished to become pink skin. A scattering of black hair fell over his eyes. “You gotta…. you gotta help me, Eli,” he rasped.
“Don’t worry about a thing, little brother,” I murmured. “You’re gonna be just fine. You’ll see.”
“Take me home, Eli,” he croaked. “Don’t leave me here.”
“Okay, brother,” I whispered. “Okay. I ain’t gonna leave you. You saved my bacon. I couldn’t leave you beh
ind.”
He swallowed hard and closed his eyes. That leg really must have hurt. I thought fast. Ruby and Christopher would be waiting for me at the train station. I had to go get them, but Logan needed me more.
I scooped my arms under him and thought fast. I couldn’t walk him to the hospital, not like this, and I was too far away to take him anywhere else. I didn’t have a bike to drive him on, either.
Never mind. He deserved whatever I could do for him. I squared my shoulders and shifted into my dragon form again. I hugged his frail body against my chest and took wing into the night.
I flapped across town and located the hospital. With any luck, I would find the parking lot and the waiting room as deserted as the first time I brought him in. I landed in some empty parking spaces. I set Logan on the ground while I shifted into a form that wouldn’t give the receptionist a coronary. Then I lifted him into my arms.
He moaned every time I moved him, and he didn’t open his eyes. Just a few more steps and he would be safe. I didn’t give a fuck what the nurses or doctors thought about me bringing him back injured within hours of them releasing him for a gunshot wound.
I marched in and surveyed the waiting room. One of those wheeled gurneys sat parked against the wall. I lowered Logan onto it and approached the desk. A grey-haired lady examined me over her wire-rimmed spectacles. “Can I help you?”
I nodded toward Logan. He curled in the fetal position with his eyes still closed. Sweat plastered his hair to his forehead. “My friend—he’s got a broken leg and a few nasty cuts.”
She compressed her thin lips and sneered at my patches. “How did he break his leg?”
“He got in a fight.” Stupid bitch. If she thought she could intimidate me with her judgmental attitude, she could go bark up another tree. It put up with enough shit for one night. I sure as shootin’ wouldn’t take it from the likes of her.
She made another face. I just did not give a flying fuck about anything as long as she checked him in.